Folsom to Sequoia National Park

We're still going!

Day 1 ended up being 7 hours in the car driving to Sequoia. Relatively uneventful, and the Pilot did very well towing up the hill (Sequoia is at about 6500 feet).  We're getting used to this towing thing.

We did have a couple close calls on Caitlin and carsickness...but she made it, and it meant we got to stop to see the views on the road up:

After entering the park, we made a unplanned detour to King's Canyon NP. Got our NP passport stamps (this will be a recurring theme in our NP tour) and visited the General Grant tree (the 2nd largest tree in the world).

Sydney is journaling her visit, complete with pictures and writtwn recaps of each day...there's some jems in those pages.

Continuing into the parks another half hour, we (finally) got to our campsite (Sequoia Lodgepole)....which, for $22/night, was fantastic. Right on the banks of the Kaweah river, the girls were happy to go exploring. We saw deer, Chipmunks, and luckily, zero bears.

The girls also got to roast some hot dogs on sticks...

And Mom and Dad got to relax...

And of course... everyone likes s'mores.

The next morning was the hike to General Sherman (the biggest tree - and biggest living thing by volume - in the world). 

Here the girls got a little tired on the hike back up the hill to the parking lot...we learned...big breakfasts are a must on hiking days.

Empty stomachs, tired kids, and windy roads led to more (very) close calls with carsickness....but we're still...clean!

We had more planned, but turns out that Sequoia is crowded on weekends, so back to the campsite for us.

That afternoon we had tickets to the Crystal Cave tour. Girls perked up, so we loaded up on snacks and made the 45 minute trip through VERY windy roads (without incident this time) for a great tour of the cave.

This one had an even steeper half mile hike virtually straight up back to the parking lot, but the kids were absolute champs and nailed it, enjoying the waterfalls along the way.

And of course...more s'mores.

Then finally this morning, with no crowds on Monday (we've already lost track of days), we climbed up Moro Rock.

I'm not fan of heights. At all. But they did a great job with the handrails along the 350 steps on this one...

Back down, and a quick stop with my favorite tree huggers...

And another 7 hour drive to beautiful Barstow, CA and their KOA. (The pool was a hit at least)

Tomorrow it's Calico Goast town and about 3 hours out to Lake Mead....plus we're calling an audible, but more on that later...