Real camera shots - Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks

There is no way to show how immense these trees are. The sugar pines are tall, the Sequoias are tall - your neck muscles get tired of looking straight up all the time. The kids really seemed to enjoy walking around all these beautiful and amazingly large trees. What a special place.

We didn't take any real camera pictures of San Diego, so I guess this is the end of the blog for this trip. I hope we get to take many more trips together - the kids seem to get so much out of them. The adults do, too. :)

Real camera shots - the bear in Sequoia NP

Driving into Sequoia National Park, we saw a bear. This was the only bear we saw on the entire trip. Thankfully. And, despite his color, this is a black bear. Black bears out West come in brown, tan, and cinnamon varieties.

Real camera shots - Yosemite Valley Floor Tour

This was a great 2-hour introduction to Yosemite human history, geology, flora, and fauna. At the end, the ranger made our kiddos Junior Rangers!

Real camera shots - walk to Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake is not really a lake, but a dammed up spot on a smallish river. Potato, potahto - it's lovely. This is where Mitch was leaning over a bridge rail and his sunglasses fell off his face into shallow water and mud below. Bill got them out, his second 'fishing expedition' of the trip (the first being Sam's water bottle in Zion). Bill modeled extremely well the 'leave no trace' ideal for our children.

Real camera shots - Yosemite Valley

Sentinel Rock, Royal Arches and Washington's Monument, the Cathedrals, Half-Dome, Bridalveil Falls. So many beautiful features. Several of the usual waterfalls for this time of year were absent because of the light year in snowfall, which feed the falls during the snowmelt. Less snow, less runoff, fewer waterfalls. When I was there in 1998, the roaring sounds from the waterfalls were almost deafening. Awesome.

Real camera shots - Yosemite's El Capitan and Yosemite Falls

El Capitan is one of the granite mountains people spend days climbing. If you can spot them, good for you. They looked like specks, and I never could convince myself I was seeing one. The ranger said it was easier to spot them at night when they have their head lamps on.

Yosemite Falls is another classic, with easy trails to the Lower Falls and great vantage points from various angles on the valley floor.

Real camera shots - Moro Lake and the drive to the eastern Yosemite entrance

Moro Lake is a high elevation lake with no outlet, so evaporation concentrates the mineral content that the lake receives every year from the snowmelt. Recent studies have shown some interesting microbial life in Moro Lake - bacteria that appear to use arsenic instead of phosphorous in their genetic makeup. Gotta love how life finds a way to happen in all sorts of places.

The eastern entrance to Yosemite is at nearly 10,000'. Tuolumne Meadow is at the upper part, too. One of the larger overlook pullout spots gives great views of some of the signature features of Yosemite, including Half Dome. Still a little bit of snow in the upper part, but this year was a light snowfall year (and why we got to see so much more of it than I did 14 years when I was there in mid-June and the snowmelt and water flow was so intense that the upper roads were closed to traffic).