This past weekend Mary and I went to Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park for our annual pilgrimage. We usually go for my birthday but were a bit delayed this year due to my CCTO business competition. We went for three days, October 6-8. Better late than never.

October 6 (Saturday) - We got a late start, around noon, and didn’t make our usual stop at Casa de Fruta. We did stop for lunch at Quizno’s in Los Banos. We saw a lot of red-tailed hawks on the drive. We got to our hotel, the Lazy J Ranch in Three Rivers, by around 4. Went to check out their pygmy goats and sheep. The goats have huge middles (picture on upper right). They look pregnant, but we were assured they were not. While checking out the goats we spotted two red-shouldered hawks chasing after each other. I took a few pictures of one with the S3 (picture on lower right) then went to get my 10D. By the time I got back, it had flown off. The other one was still around, but never let us get close enough for a picture. We drove up to the South Fork area of the park. We had never been to this area of the park before and we wanted to check it out for a hike the next day. It’s about a 30 minute drive on a windy road, some of which is not paved. We took a short hike to find a cave on the trail to Ladybug Camp. It was getting dark so we gave up. On the drive back down we saw two small owls flying all over the dirt road. I think they were screech owls, but neither stayed around long enough to verify. We had dinner at a place called the Cider Mill then went back to our room to watch Samurai Jack on DVD and turn in for the night.

October 7 (Sunday) - We went back to the South Fork area to hike to Garfield Grove. It was a fairly steep three mile hike to the grove with another mile or so among the trees. There was a bit of snow on the ground from a storm a couple days before. The “grove” was more like a string of small groups of sequoias sprinkled among various pines. There were some pretty nice sequoias though (picture on right). We ate a light lunch while admiring a few. The hike out was an uneventful trudge down hill. Once we reached the car we drove back down to the highway then into the park proper. Due to some road construction it took us a while to get to the Wuksachi Lodge. We cleaned up, had a nice dinner at the lodge, then turned in for the night. There are more pictures from the hike in the Garfield Grove Trail Gallery.

October 8 (Monday) - In the morning there were quite a few deer around the parking lot. After watching them we checked out an headed up the road. We stopped near the park boundary to hike to Big Baldy. We were both a little sore from the previous day’s hike and this hike was near 8000 feet of elevation, so we took our time. The hike passed though some nice forest with occasional views out to the Central Valley. At 2.1 miles we made it to the top of the rocky dome called Big Baldy at 8,209 feet. We had lunch at the top. From there we went another 0.7 miles to the end of the ridge for more great views. From here we could see a pillar of rock called Chimney Rock off in the distance. We stayed there a while to enjoy the view. On the hike back we saw a red-tailed hawk, but not much else. There are more pictures from this hike in the Big Baldy Ridge Trail Gallery.

We drove to Grant Grove to enjoy more sequoias while eating a small snack. After a quick stop at the Grant Grove Gift Shop to pick up a sequoia seedling to grow at home and the Market for drinks and a treat, we started the drive home. We stopped for some nectarines at a stand along highway 180. A bit further along we spotted a red-shouldered hawk near the road, but it flew off we we turned back for a view. We watched the sun set as we drove west across 152. We made it home by 8:30. Another great trip to Sequoia National Park was at an end. The full set of pictures from this trip are in the Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park October 2007 Gallery.