Saturday, August 7, 2010

Day 33 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Today we are returning back to Sequoia National Park. Our objective today is to climb to the top of Moro Rock with our friend Patty. She is an avid hiker, so Karen and I are a bit sceptical and unsure of our ability and if we are up for this challenge, but I think if we stop and rest frequently that we will be just fine.

This is a photo of Moro Rock and what lies ahead of us.

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Fortunately, we are not going to climb from the base all the way to the top. There is a parking area about 400 feet from the top, and that will be our starting point. Still quite a challenge as there are winding narrow trails and over 400 steps to climb. So up we go, one step at a time.

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Up some more.

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Time to stop and take a break and look around us.

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And up some more. The pathway is very steep and narrow, often we had to stop and let people coming down get past us before we could proceed upwards.

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And then we made it… the top of Moro Rock. We are standing on top of the world. The smiles on our faces tell the story, we are pleased that we stuck to it and climbed to the top and it will be an easy downhill, down stairs walk back to the car.

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The climb down was easy and relaxed.

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From the roadway below we got a good look at Moro Rock and where we had been, right at the top.

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Our second stop today is to visit Tunnel Log. In 1937 this giant sequoia tree fell across the road and the park officials cut a passage way through the tree so that the traffic could get through. You can see me waving as I drive through.

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We drove back out of the park and headed back to our hotel in Visalia CA. This evening we had dinner at the Olive Garden and topped off the evening with ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

Tomorrow we will part ways with Patty, she is going to visit relatives in this area and we are going to drive through Death Valley. We will meet back up with Patty on Monday afternoon.

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

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