Kings & Generals

June 10, 2015
Elks Lodge #1298
Visalia, California

We spent the last couple of days exploring Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park.  Cooler weather in the parks was a welcome change from the 104 the day we arrived.  The southern side of Sequoia was very dry with lots of dry land and yucca.  It reminded us of Arizona except for the gigantic trees.  Luckily at the higher elevations it was greener.

One tree known as General Sherman is the largest tree ( by volume) in the world and estimated to be over 2,200 years old.  We felt pretty young to be around these "old timers".











Dave looks very small standing next to this tree and it isn't even one of the largest ones.

The truck looks like a toy coming out of the "tunnel".

Wildlife was a little scarce due to the drought but we were lucky to see some bears in some of the greener meadows.  This mother bear was eating something in the grass very close to where we were walking. 








 She seemed completely unconcerned about us but her two cubs got scared and ran up a dead pine tree.
 










Another black bear (looks blonde to me)

We were a little concerned about the high prices for fuel in California before we left Arizona.  It's nice that our truck gets such good mileage (it helped that we were going downhill).