Today we started the day by checking out the General Sherman tree. Yesterday we saw the 2nd biggest tree on earth, and today we saw the biggest! At the start we had a good view of one of these fuzzy caterpillars. We saw a lot of them!
The kids wanted to make sure I took a photo of this tree because it "has a butt"!
To give you an idea of the size of the tree...
And here it is with real people in front!
Yup, that's them!
Another twin tree.
The fire scar on General Sherman.
And a panoramic photo to try and get the full tree!
There was a lot of informational displays that did a great job of putting the information into context, such as this one on the age of trees...
That had this to go along with it!
Got a photo of the kids in a twin tree.
It is bigger than it looks!
They were in the right tree of the tough twins!
We stopped at the Giant Forest Museum, checked out beetle rock, and enjoyed lunch.
Then we headed to Crystal Cave!
They asked for someone to be the sweeper at the end of the group (I called it the caboose) and Olivier was happy to volunteer, and by doing so he got to hold a flashlight! :-)
I wasn't able to get a good photo, but they call this the dragon (and it does look like a dragon in person).
And this is the side of what they call Jabba the Hut.
Anna, Mason and I were out of the cave earlier than Matt and Olivier and I was able to take their photo with the gate at the opening. And the spider in the middle moves to lock it!
We enjoyed the creek while we waited. The only time during the trip we wore our sweatshirts!
Then we headed for a quick trip through tunnel log.
After driving through we went past this really cool looking monarch.
It was another great day! And the kids all got their Kings Canyon and Sequoia Junior Ranger Badges! One of the things they had to pledge was to not pick their nose in public! Along with protecting the natural environment. :-)
Today we started our adventure at the General Grant Grove. They had a ranger lead hike through the grove and we figured it would be a good way to learn about the huge trees.
Before our hike began we visited the twin sisters. And this photo doesn't even show the top of them!
That really is Matt and the kids standing at the bottom! :-)
They did a great job of explaining the role of fire in the forest and the fire scars that we saw on many of the trees. This is the fire scar on the General Grant tree.
This was interesting to see, like the tree had been split, but it kept growing.
And we got to walk through this tree. It was at one time used as a hotel and as stables for horses. It is a fallen tree that had burned through along the core of the tree. They call these types of trees monarchs.
After lunch at Stony Creek Village, we headed to Lodgepole. I was hoping to visit the Walter Fry Nature Center. Unfortunately, it is closed. :-( We visited around Lodgepole a bit and checked out the visitors center.
In the store the kids got a kick out of the bear they had!
We then made our way back to where we were staying and enjoyed a beautiful meadow!
Matt had fun taking photos with my phone.
This is the little stream than ran through the meadow. So beautiful!
We stopped at the two overlooks. This one faces to the east. It was a surprise to see all these cairns. They were all over! And a few more were added while we were there! :-)
This is the one Matt made!
Then we went to the overlook that faces the west. Another stunning view!
