nap_time | another day, another trip, another huge tree

A highlight of the month, heck lets just call it a highlight of my summer since we're having this late-September heatwave, was a long weekend trip with my friends Debbie and Spencer to Sequoia National Park. Well, Sequoia and Kings Canyon since they connect and we entered through KC. It was a "short" four-hour jaunt down I-5 then a bit longer into the Sierras. The worst thing about the weekend was that it's harvesting season in the valley (extra dust in the air) and there were any number of fires burning in the area (ugh, mountain air with a side of smoke). Everything outside that was great.

The weekend included what I consider to be the best hike of my life. We did a nine-mile hike to Heather Lake. It was both scenic - it started as a tromp through a gorgeous forest then became a climb up a granite mountainside - and not too physically challenging. Yes, it was long but no one part was too steep which is always a bonus in my book. And did I mention the eyecandy? Mmmm, trees, streams, granite peaks, mountain lake, and a gorgeous valley! Not to mention to absolutely yummy-smelling air. Mmmm, I just wanted to eat the air. We even saw a marmot off the trail. Best of all it was warm, but not too hot. All-in-all it took us five hours. Five wonderful hours. I weep to do more hikes like this one!

Another fabulous highlight was a cave tour we did of Crystal Caves. Now, it was a wee bit of a pain to buy tickets (on sale the day of the tour only), to get to the parking lot (far away from where you buy tickets) on time, and getting to the cave was no picnic. Not because the the majorly steep hike down, but because the place was swarming - SWARMING - with insects. Ugh. I was channeling my inner helicopter as I kept swatting all the nasty bugs. But once we actually go into the cave, all the bugs were forgotten especially as our tour was led by our sexy-voiced, sexy-eyebrowed tour guide Tim. We saw lots of nifty formations and even some troglodytes (a worm that had been discovered less than a year ago - although it was hard to be impressed since it looked like a mini twig). My favorite part of the tour is always when they turn off all the lights and I get to enjoy a couple moments of complete darkness. Mmmmmm! Again, all completely worth the buggy hike in and out.

The rest of the weekend we spent generally enjoying the HUGE trees and all the nature the park has to offer. So, so many huge trees. We saw pine martens. Nifty! We saw the "largest living thing on Earth" - a Sequoia tree. Cool! We saw a mamma bear and her two cubs crossing the street. Awesome!! And we filled in the rest of the time playing games at our lodge and eating. What weekend could be better?

See the first crop of photos here! More will arrive as soon as I extract them from Spencer!