Day 31 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Today we have passed the halfway point of our summer vacation. In a few more days we will be leaving California and heading slowly towards home. But lets not think about that depressing thought, lets go and drive on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway and visit the Giant Sequoia National Monument and the Kings Canyon National Park.



There is a large grove of giant sequoias here, known as the General Grant Grove.
This group of 5 sequoias is called “The Happy Family”



Here is the “Two Sisters”



There is a tree called “The Fallen Monarch” that fell around 300 years ago and it is hollow in the middle, you can walk right through the centre of this tree.



Of course the most popular tree in this grove is the General Grant tree. It is the largest sequoia tree in this grove. It is the third largest in the world.


We got back onto the scenic byway and continued through the park, stopping and taking photos along the way.



At the Cedar Grove Visitor Center, we watched a California Ground Squirrel, actually it was the only wildlife we saw in the park except for some birds… We didn’t see any bears or deer this time.



We drove to the Eastern Entrance of the park, took this photo of the park entrance sign, and then turned around and headed back out of the park the way we came in.



You always see things from a different perspective when you reverse your route.




After leaving the park we headed for our hotel in Visalia CA where we will be staying several days. We will be meeting our friend Patty there and she will be joining us for a few days on our Park to Park tour. In the morning we will be visiting Sequoia National Park.

The sunset was gorgeous this evening.



To see all of our photos from today, you can click on this link to my FLICKR site.