Sequoia National Park

We spent the morning driving, and stopped at an In 'n Out for lunch.  I had heard from a friend that chain is a good place to get burgers, and she was right.  If you are ever in California, I highly recommend it.

We arrived at Sequoia shortly after noon and took the driving loop through the park. 

You can see how large the trees are compared to the cars. 

As we walked around the loop, a nice person offered to take our picture together. 

This is the General Grant tree, one of the tallest trees.  As we drove onward through the park, we found a trail to hike. 

It was supposed to be an easy trail leading to a waterfall, but I think that easy is a relative term.  However, the view was amazing!

The trail was quite rugged, and led over rocky ground.  The littler person in the picture is me. 

At the end was a beautiful waterfall, and a sign warning of danger.

Of course, everyone was climbing down to get to the water, so we did too.  I took off my hiking boots and put my feet in the frigid water.  It felt really good after that long hike.  Then some young people came down, and one of the girls actually went swimming in the water.  I chatted with some of them, and they were all life guards at a camp, and this was there day off.  One asked if we were on our honeymoon.

The hike back seemed shorter, and the view was just as good!  By now it was getting later, so we went to the General Sherman tree.  Unless you are handicapped, you have to park at the top of the hill and walk a half mile down to the base of the tree. 

There are many very tall sequoia trees, and then you see the General Sherman tree!

The General Sherman tree is the biggest tree in the world by volume, although not the oldest or the tallest. It was very impressive!  A sign said that the tree is bigger than a human like a human is bigger than a mouse. 

The sun was setting as we hiked back up the hill.  It was only a few miles out of the park, but it was on very winding and curving roads all the way down the mountain.  There were some empty plastic water bottles in the car, and as we went down the mountain, the change in air pressure caused the bottles to collapse. 

Sequoia was amazing!  It was beautiful and the trees were impressive.  I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling out west.