Marge: Travel Planner Extraordinaire

As we left the Grand Canyon, and made our way to Sequoia (a lovely 12 hour drive), our only regret was that we didn't get to do Zion National Park. Marge must have known, because the route she chose for our journey led us straight through Zion! We'd been on the road for a few hours by the time we arrived at Zion, and Emily woke Lauren and I up with "Erin, did you set Marge to go to the right park?" What a happy surprise! Zion was neat, and definitely worth returning to at some point in life. The rest of that 12 hour drive was long. We watched the crack in our windshield grow longer. We saw some Joshua trees, which look like stange, half-dead cacti. We sweltered and were incredibly grateful for our AC when we drove through the Mojave desert, a pleasant 116 degrees. Yuck. And most informatively, we drove the Las Vegas strip. While it was neat to see these huge casinos from some of our favorite movies, I have no desire to return.

Finally, we reached Sequoia National Park. We were a little miffed at first, because as far as we could see was scrub brush, dessert, and no trees taller a house. Assuming the park is named after the giant tree, this didn't make any sense. As we continued driving up into the hills and eventually mountains, the name began to make sense. The park newspaper warned us to be cautious of fleas, ticks, rattlesnakes, hypothermia, drowning, dehydration, falling trees, Hunta Virus, and West Nile. Do we really want to camp here? But it was worth it, and we didn't experience any of the above. We loved seeing the giant trees, which are really almost unbelievably large. One tree weighed more than 2 jumbo jets put together, another was longer than a football field. One took up more than 3 lanes of traffic at its base. Giants. So amazing. We walked through another tree that had fallen over 100 years ago, but because of the tanin in the wood, it hasn't decayed, and is still big enough and stable enough to walk through. Lengthwise.

We did a historical tour of Crystal Cave, which means that instead of high-powered Maglites, we used lanterns with candles to experience the cave. I have done underground city tours before, but this was a full-on cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, and all the other crazy formations. Wow! The lanterns we used are the same design as the ones that helped the cave's first explorers in 1918. It was so cool! The gate that closes that cave at night was put up in 1939, and is now a historical landmark. Yes, it is shaped as a spider's web, complete with a black widow in the middle. Apparently this design was chosen to let bats in and out when it was closed, without allowing anything else to pass through.

King's Canyon was very similar, with lots of big trees, and a raging river. It was hot and muggy out, so we decided to read by a river for a few minutes. While we were sitting, the clouds rolled in and it began to thunder and rain. It was just barely raining, so we put the books away and went on a walk. I have decided that I really like "nature trails" because the name usually implies that it is fairly flat, and passes by some pretty unique and beautiful scenery. Walking in the rain was food for our souls. Plus, this nature trail went around a beautiful green meadow, surrounded by trees and mountains and river.

It has been a peaceful time here in Sequoia and Kings, surrounded by big trees and calm forests. And the odd bear or two.