Day 9 - King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

Today we crossed 2000 miles on the trip and will finish the day with approximately 2400 miles driven. Tori is taking her turn as I type this and sort through the photos of the past couple days. We spent the day dirving from Carmel Valley across California to King's Canyon national Park. Certainly less grand than Yosemite it still had many sights to view and areas to explore. We saw Grant's Grove which is a grove of sequoia's including General Grant which is the widest known Sequoia. Continuing on from there we drove through the canyon which is one of the largest in North America. Many scenic view points were taken in and lunch was enjoyed from a view on high. We eventually made our way to the valley floor and wandered along the River to a a meadow to witness yet another marvelous part of nature.

Adjacent to King's Canyon National Park is Sequoia National Park. Early in the afternoon we drove through a small portion of the Garden of Giants. We saw General Sherman which is the most volumous tree in the world. It is estimated at over 2000 years of age and has stopped growing up as the top part of the tree has died. It continues to gain width and trunk mass with each passing summer. Continuing our drive amongst these giant 300 foot trees we ventured up Moro Rock. Several hundred concrete steps have been poured to make climbing up for a spectacular though unfortunately hazy view from nearly 8000 feet. We finished our tour of the park by passing through the tunnel tree. a fallen sequoia that you can drive your car through. We timed that perfectly and were able to drive through and snap a photo without having to wait for any other visitors to this fallen giant.

After winding our way back down from top of the mountains to the valley floor we made an improvised pad Thai dinner and are now carrying on to our campsite another 2 hours away but should reduce the amount of driving tomorrow.