Travel: Sequoia National Park
Sequoia was our ninth National Park in CA this year. We made a decision in January to see all of them in 2018, just for the fun of it. I will be putting a blog post together soon rating them on the official Chapdelaine rating system ;)
We arrived to Sequoia late Friday night, and set up our tent at Lodgepole campground. We had a beautiful site that was quiet and peaceful, just a short walk down from the parking area.
We woke up to my absolute favorite part of camping. When there is "nothing to do." That cold morning air, and pouring a life giving cup of coffee. The time where I just sit with my husband in our chairs, watching all of the wildlife around us, wondering why we don't do this more often. We live in a crazy, "techy," overstimulating world. I'm starting to think we all have some mild form of ADD if we are on our devices daily, working, trying to have a social life, and spending quality time with loved ones. It's enough to make anyone feel stressed. Camping is the complete opposite. With nothing to do but sit, and observe, my mind is quieted. I'm watching squirrels, birds and deer, and I'm sipping my coffee wondering if life could possible get any better.
Saturday was dedicated to a day hike along a trail that wound up through the forest and around a valley. Our views were expansive, and truly showed the scale of the park. We spend Saturday night at camp, cooking over the fire and talking about our life together. We are feeling extremely grateful for it all, and excited for all that is to come.
Sunday was so relaxing. We woke up at 6, packed everything up, filled our thermos with hot coffee and drove around looking for the celebrities of this park, the gentle giants. Those sequoias blew us away. I have seen them before but that doesn't dull the astonishment when I look again, or try to capture the whole thing with my camera, or realize that these trees have been around for thousands of years. I'll never get used to that. We spent time on Moro rock, being the only ones up there we were in complete silence. We soaked up the sunshine for a moment and marveled at the world around us. After that we found a few groves of the trees that we came to see, took photographs, enjoyed our coffee, and went to find "general Sherman." The largest tree (by mass) in the world. It is hard to wrap your mind around that. But he's there, getting his photograph taken about 200 times an hour, a massive piece of history. If only he could talk about the things he has lived through.
We drove home, talking about this trip, realizing how lucky we were to go on it, and feeling completely grateful for this one precious life that we were given.
