Day 2 – March 11, 2019 (Monday)
Today was magnificent.
We had breakfast in the room then fully got to explore and appreciate
the massive amounts of snowfall. We
drove down from the Lodge, just to the bottom of the hill, and got coffee at
the market. The road down to Grant Tree
required chains so we just decided to walk down the road and then walk the ½
mile loop around Grant Tree. But the
walk on the road was just spectacular because we were walking all through a
grove of sequoias.
The kids and Nick got
into an ongoing snowball fight. The
temperature was around 30 degrees.
Grant’s Tree is 102 feet in circumference but honestly, there seemed to
be practically a dozen other trees that were almost as large. The sequoias are so distinct looking and
there’s just no way to appreciate their size unless you see them in
person.
After the hike, we went into the Visitor Center, which was
so completely covered in snow that we almost didn’t see it, and got our hat
pins and magnets, and stamped our passbooks.
The volume of snow around here is simply astounding.
From there we drove north on 180 up to the point where it
was closed off and we took the right road down to Hume Lake. The view to the East was the best view of
King’s Canyon (which is deeper than the Grand Canyon) we were able to get
because the best part of the park was the part of Highway 180 (the Scenic
Highway) that was closed.
We had a picnic down by Hume Lake (which is actually
privately owned by Hume Lake Christian Camps – which look awesome), a picnic of
cream cheese, pepperoni sandwiches – shout out to Ryan from our Acadia Maine
trip – then we turned around and drove back to Grant’s Village (the area where
we’re staying)
We stopped along the way to get pictures of the national
park sign and it was almost entirely covered in snow. The kids had to scale a snow bank just to get
near the sign.
Then we rented cross county skis and snow shoes and had the
most fun for the next few hours. The
kids got skis and Nick and I got snow shoes – exactly like the ones we rented
in Great Basin. We drove down the road
towards Grant’s Tree and stopped at a picnic area and played around. Grant had just gone downhill skiing for the
first time a few weeks ago so he was thinking it would be the same but it was a
lot different and he struggled at first – well really both kids struggled at
first – as in their falling and my laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my
face – but Ryan picked it up a little faster.
Grant eventually got the hang of it too but it was just
beautiful where we were and there were very few other people around. The snow was falling off the trees – and yes,
those trees were giant sequoias and we were literally skiing on top of a
stream. I tried skiing briefly and after
one rough fall, luckily away from my bad shoulder, I gave Ryan her skis
back.
It was just a bright, sunny, crisp and glorious day.
We got back to the room around 4pm – you can’t even imagine
the size of icicles hanging off the side of the lodge and cleaned up. At 5:30 we walked down to the restaurant and
had a decent meal, then we walked back to the lodge.
We promised Grant that we’d play games in the lobby by the
fire place. But rather than play games
we ended up talking to a couple my parents’ age, Dorothy and Locke Perkins from
Minnesota – and they were extraordinary.
They’d traveled the world and were just so engaging. They talked to us and to the kids and told
them how lucky they were to be able to explore all the parks.
Now we’re back in the room and Nick and Grant are playing
the stupidest and most illogical game on the planet, yes, Magic the Gathering.
Ryan’s eating more food and attempting to speak to me in Spanish. She has an amazing accent (from her early
days with Clarissa) – now she just needs to get the words down 😊
It’s about 9pm and I think we’ll be going to bed fairly
soon. We’ll head out pretty early
tomorrow morning and hit Yosemite. So
today, park #33 is in the books. I don’t
know if I say this enough but I absolutely live for these trips. This is the happiest I ever am and everyone’s
getting along.
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