Kings Canyon National Park, California

Continuing our trek north, we head to Kings Canyon National Park, just to the very north of Sequoia National Park. We were able to camp inside this park at Sunset campground because our fifth wheel fit inside. We had site #69 and there are no hook ups there.




We did several hiking trails while there. One was the hike through Big Stump trail. This sort of speaks for itself. Lots of these beautiful Sequoia's were cut down and all that are left are the tremendous stumps. (That is ME sitting on that stump) You can always click a picture to see a larger version!

While Jeff and I were wondering along a trail, we saw this huge downed Sequoia, so he climbed on it. This picture gives you an idea of just how big these trees are.

This hiking trail took us from panoramic point about five miles out. But look at these views. Truly nothing could match this!

The picture below of the white-tailed deer was taken behind our camp site. Since there was a meadow there, the deer showed up every day. This is only one of the deer as we usually had 4-6 every day.

Lucky for us we found some nice people to take our picture in front of this Sequoia on one of the trails.

See ya down the road!

Sequoia National Park, California

Visiting this beautiful National Park is truly something special. We never thought we would ever get to come here; yet here we are.





The largest tree in the world is here at this park. It is the General Sherman tree.
It is 275 feet tall and 40 feet wide at its base. This tree is estimated to be 2200 years old.





The picture below is of Jeff standing inside of the Black Arch tree. It was burned and the inside is still black. The tree does not die when it is burned as long as some of the bark is still alive and if it is then the tree will continue to grow with the bark growing around the burned areas.




This black bear was heading to the meadow to snap up some yummy grasses and plants.

I walked through this awesome and huge tree. Jeff snapped a photo to show just how big it is !

We saw this deer snapping up some nice, new green growth on the side of the road.

Jeff and I hiked a trail to this waterfall and it was really flowing heavy that day since all the snow was melting from the mountains.

This baby bear was very cautious when he saw us walking on a trail near a meadow. But he soon scurried off into the meadow to catch him a quick lunch.

This bear was not the momma of the baby above. She was just munching away on the side of the road when we saw her. She didn't even bother to look up at us.

Notice the tag on her left ear - that usually indicates she is a 'problem' bear. This means she has probably been caught in the campground scavenging up food or trying to tear up the bear boxes that hold the campers garbage. They get two infractions, then unfortunately after, they are put down

See ya down the road !

Los Angeles, California

In Los Angeles we, of course, went to the infamous Santa Monica Pier. I had no real expectations of what it would be.

Lots of people, people fishing and a resturant at the end of the pier. It was the June gloom when we were there - kind of foggy-like, overcast day.



There is an amusement park on the pier for all the kids to enjoy. They did look like they were having fun from what we could see.




The pier represents the end of Route 66 and as you can see the bait-tackle shop signs indicate this.

There are lot of performers on the pier also. We saw some break dancers and then there was this guy. He was as limber as a spaghetti noodle and was lots of fun to watch.

The pics below show some of the exhibits from the La Brea Tar Pits. This was at the Page Museum. You can also watch the artifacts being worked on in the lab through a huge glass area.

Outside of the museum you can see one of the actual tar pits where some of the artifacts/bones etc were found. They have several pits on the premises outside the museum that were being worked on at the time we were there.

See ya down the road !

San Diego, California Part 2

In addition to going to the Zoo we went over to the Hotel Coronado. This is a fabulous old hotel built in the mid 1800's. Fell into disrepair and then was purchased again in the mid 1900's and was completely re-done. It is beautiful and I am sure very expensive. It is right on the beach and many years ago this was the 'place to be'....




As you can see the hotel is georgous and the design is outstanding.

We drove over to Point Loma to see the beautiful seashore and the cliffs. It was pretty fantastic as you can see from the pictures below.

While at Point Loma we went to the Point Loma Lighthouse. It is no longer in use but there was lots of information there about the former people who lived there and cared for it.

The two pictures below are of the La Jolla Cove area that we drove over to so we could see the seals.

They did not disappoint. The beach is beautiful and lots of people were surfing and swimming.

It was way too cold for us!

See ya down the road !

San Diego, California - Part 1

The Zoo - who doesn't love the Zoo ?
I could take a zillion pictures - but I'll share just a few below.

The first picture if of a Koala - it isn't a bear as many think. It is not of the bear family.



This guy was just staring out into space. Laid back and resting. He could care less that WE
were staring at him through the glass windows.





This was taken of me at the entrance to the zoo. It is as close as they would let me get to an elephant.

This is my pic which I call "drunk giraffe". He is, of course, NOT drunk - he just looks it!

The male of the Polar bear species was swimming around the pool and the female took a bunch of palm fronds and laid them out under her cave area and just went to sleep.

I can't even remember what this animal is below. But it stood so still we thought it was a statue until it suddenly moved.

Look at the little meerkat below. He was so awesome. He kept standing up or sitting on his hind legs and posed all day!

See ya down the road!

--more San Diego to follow--

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Here we are at Joshua Tree National Park which is in Joshua Tree, California. Below is a picture of a Joshua Tree. They are pretty unusual, aren't they?




Our camping spot for this trip is at Black Rock Canyon Campground in Yucca Valley, California which is maybe five miles or so away from the entrance to the park.



We did several hikes while at the park, one of which was the Wall Street Mill hike which is where they did the stamping of the gold bars that were extracted from the mine there.




The picture below is part of the Cholla Garden. Look at how unusual this type of cactus is. I thought they were beautiful. The Cholla never dies, even though the dark brown areas appear that it is dying. Actually it just sprouts new buds/blooms and the plants life goes on.

We also hiked to Barker's Dam. It went through some beautiful rock formations and ended up at this lake-like area which was made because of a dam built by the Well's family who used to live at a ranch within the park. He needed water for his cattle. Eventually rustlers got most of his cattle and he was no longer in the cattle business.

The rock below is aptly named "Skull Rock". This was another hike that we went on.

This massive boulder is being held up by this slim little rock. Wonder what will happen when it gives out. Although it looks like the little rock is winning as the massive boulder appears to be splitting.

See ya down the road!

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

We traveled to the desert area of Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

The picture below is from one of our hikes where we discovered that a movie was made there in 1965 called "The Professionals" and this area was used to film in and the remains of a wall are seen here that was part of the set.



The drive into the park wasn't on the best of roads initially, and it is about 10-12 miles on that road until you get to the entrance.

But once you get inside the park you can truly see its beauty and how unusual the rock formations are. We were lucky to get a site right next to the most beautiful area and at $30 a night for full hook ups felt very lucky.

We hiked several trails within the park and went to the visitors center where there is a short movie about the park and the rock formations. The picture below, to me, looks like a monkey and I have named it that.

The hikes we did were just great. I hope to go back and do it again someday. It was just starting to get very hot so we opted to move on to our next location after two days.

I took a picture from our site below when the moon was just starting to rise and we were sitting down for dinner at our pic nic table behind our site.

Is this space below a little 'tight' or is Jeff a little 'too big' for the space?
You decide........hmmmm.....

The picture below was also taken from our site just after the sun had set and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of the beautiful skies.

See ya down the road!