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.

I found King's Canyon to be more interesting than Seqouia (to quote a president, once you've seen one redwood you've seen them all - that this one is 15 feet taller than that one doesn't make it any more interesting to look at). But it is beautiful country and I'll quite happily return at some point, but for now we keep ending up back at Yosemite instead.

Canoe


Kayak

We didn't see Grant. Darn it. Now there's a reason to go back. :)

Sherman is 274.9 ft tall, 102.6 ft in circumference, with a volume of 52,508 cubic ft.

Grant is 268.1, 107.6 and 46,608.

So Grant is only bigger in circumference.
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That would make for a fun LoT outing! :D

And to make it extra swanky, I'll bring a solar-powered lava lamp. :birdy:

I will agree, Yosemite is equally as beautiful -- but if I stay in Yosemite, I do it at the Awahnee (sp.?) Hotel. ;) No campie!

You have to admit though with the redwoods in Sequoia -- the first time you go into that area called "The Great Forest" with tons of those huge trees all around you, it is rather magical.

Yosemite is cooler on the whole waterfall scene though. :)

Yes, both are ginormous and so cool to look at. Grant lost one of its branches, I guess before we were there. "Lost its branches", a phrase which here means "something the size of a large tree came off the side and plummeted through the wooden fence and the walkway around Grant". Whoo, scary.

They make such a thing??? And yeah, a camping expedition with LoT would be the swankiest darned camping trip this side of the Rockies. ;) We will have to keep EuroMeinke and Nirvanaman's hands off each other in the tent though.... ;)

I don't think so, but that doesn't stop me from rigging one myself. ;)

I love camping (and not just the Auntie Mame variety). But I'm afraid that at my age, camping would need to involve an RV with indoor plumbing and an innerspring mattress. :cheers:

And feather boas and a sequinned Liza outfit? ;)

At Dorst they had indoor plumbing... the public showers were at a different campground, but there was the freezing cold stream and the not so cold Lake Hume...

I slept on an air matress the first nite and a military style cot the second nite... defnitely the cot was more comfortable.

If you notice my name, I do not like bears. I am quite happy that I haven't met one...yet.

I would love to stay at the Ahwahnee but not with all of the kids. Sorry kids. We have enjoyed staying at Camp Curry {2 double WITH bathroom}, the loft room {anyone ever stay in this one? It has two doubles on the bottom and a double on a loft, soooo cool} and the family room at the Yosemite Lodge.

We have stayed one night at the Housekeeping camp. Um. Ah. It was very basic. We had the food locker and well, it would have been a lot more fun if the people we were in such close contact with were other people we knew, ya know? And still, no bears.

Tell me about the Ahwahnee...ever stay in a cottage?

The only giant sequoias I've seen were outside of Yosemite.

{I notice how GC picked up on Grants circumference. :D }

I don't really think I'm camping unless I'm sleeping on the ground with only a sleeping back between us. There are no electrical outlets within many, many miles and the nearest shower and flushing toilet is even farther away.

Growing up our main camping was to drive not into the lava flows of southeast Oregon which is mostly federal grazing land. Drive through a couple of the cattle ranches until we were 30 miles or so from the nearest house and then just drop a tent on the first flat spot we found without a anthill in it. 15 degrees over night, 115 degrees midday. That was camping.

Unfortunatley, haven't been able to do much of that as an adult. Everybody we know won't go if if it will involve hauling a cooler farther than 10 feet from the car to the provided picnic table. It isn't camping when there is a higher population density than a Manhattan city block.

That isn't to say it still can't be fun, but it isn't really camping, in my opinion.

On the subject of bears, we once had our entire food supply confiscated by rangers while camping in King's Canyon 'cause they decided we hadn't secured it well enough. After a loooooong hike, we came back to find everything gone with a note. We had to drag our asses to the ranger station, and I believe they made us pay a fine.

When I was a kid, my family would go camping with the tent, sleeping bag on the ground, "roughing it" method.

That is why I hate camping. If I'm on vacation, I want to relax and be comfortable. Literally sleeping on rocks fits neither of those.

But for those who enjoy that kinda thing, have at it.

I would rather camp than stay in a hotel.

No, when we stayed there in Yosemite it was in a regular hotel room. Wasn't a huge room as I recall. I do recall it was very lovely though, and the restaurant was good too. It's been years since I was there -- I went for a bar mitzvah of all things. And I remember I was four days into quitting smoking. And I was staying with my parents. It was... interesting. ;)

Yeah the whole sleeping on the ground thing I am SO not gonna do. I have enough sleeping troubles. LOL Alex your idea of camping sounds like you have to be as absolutely miserable as possible. Just doing what we did was definitely a LOT of work, but left enough time for the fun stuff. It was camping. It was in a campground, and we slept in tents outside. I washed in a freezing cold creek. That was enough "camp" for me.

Oh yeah GD, the bear thing. We heard of someone doing exactly the same thing, and ended up being fined $150 for leaving and not latching his bear box properly. See, the bears only get aggressive when they know they can get food (i.e. if people intentionally start feeding them, or the bear box isn't latched, etc.) That's when the rangers have to start shooting them. Otherwise they are pretty docile and will get very scared of you very easily if you make noise. Not that I'd go up and try to pet one, of course.

But yeah my next vacation will be in a hotel (at WDW, actually). As I said before, I like MORE amenities, not LESS. But it was a new experience and I am always up for new experiences. There's gotta be SOMETHING about the whole camping thing that people enjoy doing, after all!! It's sort of like a "make your own adventure" or "exploration" sort of thing.

Like any vacation, the most important thing is who you're spending it with.

As a close friend of mine told me, "Teresa, you don't camp. You homestead." And, she's pretty right about that. :cool:

Here's my usual personal gear that I just cannot live without whilst in the woods:

• queen air mattress with automatic built-in pump
• portable queen bed frame
• queen linens - sheets, pillows, comforter
• folding bedside table
• portable table lamp
• inflatable living room set (sofa, chair, table)
• 9-person cabin tent (that only sleeps 2 with all my stuff)
• doormat
• "flock" of six pink lawn flamingos :birdy:
• tiki torches :tiki:
• solar landscape lantern set
• small portable stereo
• portable shower
• hammock
• "prep" box that includes toilet paper, handiwipes, full first-aid kit, assorted gadgets, trash bags, extra batteries, flashlights, etc.
• plus, the usual cooking gear

:D (And Alphabassetgirl knows first-hand that I'm not exaggerating, but probably leaving stuff out even.)

I bring a pretty useful kitchen with me, but camping involved this type of schedule:

Wake up
Make GIANT breakfast of eggs, bacon, coffee, bread, etc.
Do dishes
Prepare picnic lunch
Go on short hike
Eat lunch
Come back to camp
Take nap/fool around
Make GIANT dinner (Seared Ahi, Indian Lamb Skewers, etc)
Do dishes
Make fire
Read/chat
Go to sleep

^^^^ OK next time I go camping, I am going with Not Afraid and Disneyphile. It hath been decided!

(I think I was hooked once you got to the inflatable living room set and the seared Ahi.)

Yes, between the two of them that would be comparable to at least a 2 star...:cool:

I've only walked through the Awahnee but I do searches all of the time and the cabins {which I've snooped around} are pretty nice.

http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/

What is up in Yosemite right now? Is that rain? We went last August and got caught up in a thunderstorm while on the Merced. It was freezing. We were totally surprised, packed for summer. Silly us.

The bears~yes,you can get fined if they break into your car, too. I always wondered what our insurance would say if we were broken into? We always totally clean out the car, wiping down all surfaces. And, someone who works there told us if you smoke a cigarette in the vehicle, it kills the smells. He even kindly volunteered when we said we don't smoke.

I still think it would be totally cool to meet up there and do mild hikes. :D

Unfortuantely, checking availability, it is not what I want when I want.

We got married at the Awanhee! It was lovely.

I'm never miserable while camping. But then discomfort doesn't particularly bother me and even if things are great in a particular moment overall it is always good.

But I do eat well when camping. Providing a quality meal after a week of living out of a cooler is one of the fun challenges of true camping. Nothing like being on day 7 out in the desert and hand making ice cream or something like that.

If you ever renew your vows....

Hand made ice cream at the desert? Mmmmm....

The Hubster is a great cook, even camping. And, he even can go and fetch a few coffees on his bike. :snap:

My favorite parks: Disneyland and Yosemite. And here I sit. :(

I am so grateful to you guys for sharing your stories and pictures. :snap:

On the other hand...

I don't camp. "Roughing it" for me is a Holiday Inn instead of a Hyatt Regency. I appreciate The Outside, but I believe it's best appreciated in the comfort of an air-conditioned lounge, frosty beverage in hand and stacked blonde on arm, on the other side of a large piece of plate glass. Tinted glass.

You can have my spot at the campsite, I don't mind.

LOL Yeah, I think Camp Curry is roughing it. Except for the loft. That was nice. Not the Awahnee but still....

I don't camp, either.

But, those pictures make it look fun....

Yeah, it has been kind of sucky that none of the friends I've made in California are really camping people. We have one couple that likes to car camp and I do that with them but it is always in reasonably civilized people-packed campgrounds like at Seqouia or Yosemite.

One time I was supposed to camp with them in a great spot above Point Reyes and they never showed. Turns out that they got there before me, saw that the parkings spots were about 100 yards from the camp sites and said "screw that" rather than carry all their stuff that far (and they bring plenty of stuff; litterally a kitchen sink).

Oh well. It really pisses me off, though, that they are starting to install WiFi in various state park campgrounds in California. If you can't disconnect when you go camping then just stay the heck at home.

A woman after my own heart! THAT is camping!

Alex~ Point Reyes? Oooo...We walked into a place {can't remember if it was driveble...} in the Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. It was sooooo desolate. Over looked the ocean and had the woodsy forest effect as well.

But...I wouldn't mind carrying my things to it...I would mind being eaten up by a mountain lion, though!!!!

I don't mind access to wi-fi. I mind that I don't have anything to access it.

I haven't been camping in a few years, and really want to do it again. It's really rather a lot of work for a "vacation" and you get filthier than you might have imagined possible ... with showers less often than you might wish.

Still, it's awesome fun ... and we should make a swanking of it. I've never been to Sequioa or Kings Canyon, and fully mean to .... but FIRST ... I want to hit Yosemite with some of the swankers who have never been or haven't been in a while.

I'm thinking next Spring, right after the snow melts and the falls are flowing mightily. Those who can't rough it can stay at the Ahwahnee and still have fun with us. Those who can't rough it and who aren't rich can stay at Camp Curry and still have fun with us.

(The more comfortable hotel with the nice restaurant is the Yosemite Lodge, but it's a bit further off from our camping fun zone).



Oooooh, the call of the wild ....

I'm always interested in camping trips even if they are more pseudo-camping.

And I still need to make it to the top of El Capitan after having been rejected twice. The first time we started too late. The second time we made it to the final ladder climb but a man ahead of us fell and hurt his back and the trail was closed while he was flown out. While waiting for that it started to snow. Since we were wearing shorts and t-shirts we just headed back.

I like Andrew's camping style.

I'm not a fan of camping in Yosemite Valley, but give me Tulome and I'm there.

I'm with Alex on this one. If I can see or hear anyone else while I'm camping, I'll drive farther. Being near toilets, showers, picnic tables, etc., means being near other people. We've seen people bring huge tv's camping. What's the freaking point?

We do like a bit of "luxury" though. We bring a huge tent, an air matress, a few hammocks, etc. Big breakfasts, small lunches, big dinners that usually consist of either steak or hot dogs. I love baking potatos in hot embers. Mmmmm...

I haven't been camping in almost two years. I miss it. You guys have much better camping than we do here in AZ though. My favorite camping spot burned down. :(

Me, too. Camping with air conditioning is the way to go.
:)

I camped once Alex style. My ex and I woke up in the morning to find our site surrounded by Black Bear tracks that weren't there when we went to bed. Since then... no thank you.

Another time, for Boy Scouts believe it or not, our tent was attacked by centipedes. One crawled on my back and my dad's leg. I said never again but I caved in years later and the above instance occurred. So... no thank you.
:)

Come on, I would think both those instances would make you more likely to camp. Black bears sniffed you while you slept and didn't bite, and you survived a centipede attack unscathed. You're invincible! :D

The thing I love most about camping is hearing the elk walk around the tent at night. I love elk. A bear would be so awesome!

Yeah, that's the difference that separates people.

One group reads GC's post and says "That is why I don't camp" the other group reads it and says "That is why I do camp."

Similarly, I tell my story of hiking El Capitan in the snow wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I think it was great fun and most others assume it was just a horrible experience.

This is about the tenth time I've misread the thread title as "Fun in Sephora."

We did a hike near S. Lake Tahoe in late May and the occasional patches of snow on the ground became waist-deep drifts taking up most of the trail and passable ground as we gained elevation. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts, and, yeah, it was great fun.

With one exception, I've only done SCA camping. Which means the object was to make it as much not like actual camping as possible. I made a center pole hub-and-spoke pavillion (father/daughter shop project! When I was in my late 20s! My dad was SO thrilled to get one last "project" with daddy's little girl. He couldn't care less about my dressing up in funny clothes and eating funny food, but making the pavillion meant quality shop time with a kid, so it was a-okay in his book.

Anyhow, I'm partway through making a slatbed to go in the pavillion, but I haven't finished and I need to get more tools to do so, and I need to make room in the garage before I do that. *THEN* I'll be ready to go camping again.

(The exception was the time I went with dormmates to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival during spring break and we camped to save money. Campsites ranged from fairly primitive National Forest sites along the way to one of those for-profit campsites outside of Ashland that had everything from cabins to RV hookups to (for us) tent spce. One of the forest sites was cool because we set up in the dark next to what we assumed - from the sound - was a swift-moving stream. Woke up in the morning to the sight of a gorgeous waterfall directly across the river from our tent. :snap: )

Totally. To me it would seem awful, but if you have fun doing it, more power to you :) The "pampered" camper and the "hardcore" camper have two definitions of what constitutes "fun" and "camping"...


If you got gussied up in the woods using Becca Stick Foundation, Black DiorShow Mascara, Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier Pencil and Jungle Red Nars Lipstick but nobody was around to see it, would you still look fabulous? :cheers:

The El Cap hike was unintended in that snow had not been in the forecast. The same unexpected storm killed a couple mountain climbers who froze to death when they got trapped halway up.

But another time a friend and I did a day-long snow hike at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains wearing just shorts and t-shirts again. You definitely keep moving. But it was late spring so while the snow was still there the air temperature wasn't too bad. But you definitely keep moving.

On our recent trip to Alaska we had a chance to walk on a glacier. The air was definitely cool, but the sun was shining. My brother-in-law and I didn't go more than a couple of minutes before shedding our coats and sweaters down to short sleeves, despite being on a 4 mile long chunk of dense ice.

The only downside to camping with me - I'm clinically terrified of insects of any kind, even dead ones. :(

Thankfully, it's never been too much a problem, but there was a time a few summers ago, when I awoke to find a grasshopper that invaded my tent. I ran out, screaming. Thank the gods I was camping with friends who know me well enough to just shrug it off, and go in and catch the grasshopper for me. (Although, they did laugh, but that's ok - I'm used to it. ;) )

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See, I told you. I tried to warn y'all. Is this anyone's son here on LoT? I hope not.

:eek: :p :D

I've been group camping before where one of our campers across the site had a bear seriously sit on her head while she was sleeping. The bear had decided to lie next to her tent, but kinda "rolled" onto it, right where her head was. She actually laughed about it. At that same campout, one group had their cooler broken into over night. The bear left the expensive steaks alone, but took the donuts and beer. They found about 6 empty cans with tooth punctures scattered nearby. :D

Bears can somewhat be fun.

If you mean JW and lash... then I could see your point. But animal bears with the claws and the biting and the roaring... nuh uh. :D I've seen 'Grizzly Man'.

You've obviously never been to a bear party. Lots of claws, biting, and roaring! ;)

The reason it is fun can't be explained. It either is or it isn't.

I look forward to one day climbing out of my tent and finding a bear in the middle of camp. I hope it doesn't kill me, but the risk is worth it.

It's seriously a cool experience.

I've also personally experienced a small pack of coyotes (4 or 5 of 'em) in my camp when I awoke in the middle of the night to walk to the bathroom. I still walked alone, passing just within feet of them. They looked quite scared of me, and were just beautiful animals.

I was more concerned about the family of raccoons that invaded our bowl of guacamole later that evening though, thus spoiling our chance at leftovers. Looks like they enjoyed it too. Greedy little buggers. And, I could swear I heard them laughing at us. (All though, that was probably just their regular "chittering" sounds.)

Animals love me for some reason - I'm like a magnet for 'em. I've hand-fed many squirrels in the forest, and have even had a feral cat come sit on my lap and purr. That last one put my fellow campers in awe, because they all tried coaxing him with various food items that he ignored and even ran away from.

I've also had a ground squirrel climb into my tent overnight.

I only intentionally feed squirrels though, usually with raw nuts and/or berries that would be native to the area I'm camping in.

Coyotes are like pine cones; all over the place. I had them in camp many times and they're very timid. Hard to be scared of them.

You were right to be more worried about the raccoons. People mostly follow the rules about bears but think it is cute to feed raccoons and they can be just as persistent about getting food once they think part of it is theirs.

Actually, all the times I've run into animals the only time I was scared was the youngest ever. Once, hiking in the Oregon lava flows we walked into a shallow cave. Inside was a mountain lion cub. No sign of mom and you can bet we didn't stick around very long to see if she'd show up.