first california day trip

This last Saturday we went to the Sequoia National Park and drove in the mountains. It was amazing. We couldn't believe how much like Colorado it felt :)

It took about 30 minutes to reach the mountains, then another 2 hours to reach 5000 feet :)

We stopped off at Hospital Rock to  let Adelyn run around a bit and so Mason could eat.

Of course exploring with a toddler is interesting :) She insisted on finding the largest sticks and waving them around. In the bottom right hand, there were some little white butterfly things that she kept chasing :)

In the top left, she's jumping. She has a jumping fetish right now :)

Mason got to check things out too :)

It was then time to hop back in the car and keep going. I wanted to see the General Sherman Sequoia which was another 3000 feet up at least.

Of course, easier said than done. Adelyn did not want to get back in the car, so we were like this by the time all was said and done:

ah...

After ALOT of winding and twisting and hairpin turns (and finding out that our daughter is like her mother and does in fact get car sick...) We reach 5000 feet...and snow! Seeing the snow, it was like "aaaah, hello old friend". The trees in the Giant Forest are (surprise) huge! So pretty! The Sequoias are pretty impressive and ginormous!

This is a fallen Sequoia....

They hollowed out a walkway through it....it was pretty neat...

by the way, the pictures do not do this experience justice.

General Sherman

Nick and Adelyn in front of General Sherman...it does NOT do this huge tree justice...

...Mason wanted in on the action too.

aaah...snow..."hello, old friend, good to see you"

Oh, I'm sorry...did you want a mountain view?

It was a long day...

...but we survived our first day trip in California.