So Cali here we finally are. Katie was a saint for not only letting us crash there for the night but also for letting us do all of our laundry, buying us dinner, and giving us snacks to take with us. I sure do miss her, can't believe it has been 3 years since she has been home. It was beautifully warm in Bakersfield, California even at 7 am when we rolled out. That didn't last long though. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to the entrance of Sequoia National Park. Katie was right, it took another hour of super windy, sketchy, steep drop off roads to get really into the park and where the huge trees actually were. It was a pretty scary drive up over 6000 feet.
At the top we were excited to get out and explore. We stopped by the visitor center as we've done first upon entering all parks. We always get information on camping and hiking that we want to do, and what the park has to offer. Christine buys and sends out her routine postcards. I get my magnets and browse all the items, and then we all meet up to talk to the rangers.
The first hike we did was the Congress trail. This is the trail that includes the iconic "General Sherman Tree" (the big big one). Most people do that short 0.5 mile hike and see the big tree, snap a few pics, then move on. That area of the trail was packed. We of course are always looking for a little more adventure so we chose to do the 3 mile loop around the area. Well worth it as always as we got to see many many more giant trees like The President, The Chief, and my favorites (the groups of trees) named The Senate and The House. Beautiful hike like all of the hikes we've done so far. Very impressive and amazing to feel so small.
We got a campsite in one of the still open campgrounds that night. Christine made us a nice fire while I made us a nice warm dinner of Chilli and pasta. Our wood burned out pretty quickly which was fine since we were tired anyways. The previous nights temperatures in the teens with a real feel down to 8 degrees scared us into sleeping in the van. Even though it wasn't our first night sleeping in the van, I don't think a single one of us was comfortable enough to have a decent nights sleep.
A large portion of our crap was out of the car because of the bear box regulations. In the Sierra Nevada's where bears are such a large presence and issue they have laws and regulations in place about how to safely store food and other scented items. We had to unload all of these items from the van even while we day hiked. Luckily they provide giant bear boxes for safe storage, but it was a b