Fun in Sequoia
 

Hey kids, the photos are up from the fabulous 3-day camping trip to Sequoia that I went on shortly before Disneyland's 51st -- literally, on Sunday I drove back home, threw all my crap out of my bag, took a shower, threw clothes back into the bag, and drove down to DL meet SuperK and Leighann and the rest of y'all.

Anyway, the campsite and trees and stuff were so pretty, and the boys (and girls) were cute too.

http://www.shawnsmithphoto.com/sequoia/

So has anyone else been up there before? I'm not really a "camping" type person, but I still had a good time with the deers and the bears and the TOTOROs.

Well, at least I think I saw a totoro. ;)

Hey my idea of "roughing it" is no room service, so if I had fun, maybe you'd like to check it out too :) :)

I love camping!

Great pics, btw. Looks like it was a great time. Thanks for sharing! :)

Beautiful pictures. Makes camping look fun. :snap:

Did you say bears???

Very cool. We camped at Sequoia for 5 years in a row. Were you in King's Canyon? And is that Lake Hume?

Yeah, there are black bears out there -- you get a whole "bear lecture" when you enter the camp site. Basically, all food has to be in "bear boxes" (theres one or two for each camp site) if you are more than 10 feet away from your food.

You basically use the bear boxes like a pantry for your food/coolers/toiletries/anything that has a scent.

There was a bear trying to get into one of the boxes the first nite, but one of the dogs scared it away.

The second nite there was one guy who forgot he had a fruit in his backpack and woke up to the bear right outside his tent ripping apart his bag! We heard him and his tent mate start banging pots and pans together to scare the bear -- and the bear bolted pretty fast.

Exciting!

That is indeed Lake Hume. We rented canoes, and I got annoyed at everyone when they kept calling them "kayaks". (Think a one-bladed paddle that you row on one side of a flat-bottom boat a la Disneyland = canoe and a two-sided paddle that you row on both sides in a smaller v-shaped bottom boat = kayak).

I think we were in King's canyon briefly to see the General Grant tree?? It's hard to tell, since I wasn't driving (the roads around there are windy and rather scary, lol). I mean, there are signs going "now entering Sequoia National Forest", or "now entering such and such", and on the map the line between King's Canyon and Sequoia seems rather random (tho I am sure it has to do soemthing with the terrain).

The camp ground we went to was Dorst campground. It was rather pretty. We also checked out Lodgepole, which looked nice too.

Fantastic pics! I've been to Sequoia / Kings Canyon many times camping. It's one of my favorite placess to go in the Spring. We were set to go two years ago when I got sick. Damnit, I'm going next spting.

General Sherman. Amazing tree. It's HUGE! One of its branches could be its own large tree on its own. Truly a sight to see. Love Sequoia.
:)

I didn't know you could rent canoes! I'm all over that one next time.

There's both a Grant and a Sherman. Grant's in King's Canyon, Sherman is just outside. One of them's the tallest (I believe Grant) and the other is the largest by mass.

And hearing that thing called a kayak would drive me bonkers.