Saturday Jeff and I drove up to one of our favorite getaways, Kings Canyon National Park. We sometimes venture into Sequoia National Park, but we didn’t this trip because we were too exhausted.
Last year we got an annual pass to the two parks, so we’ve been trying to get in as many trips as possible. This trip we had hoped to do a few new (to us) trails from a trail guide book I bought at Costco. Well, Jeff left it up to me to pick out the trails. Not a good idea, seeing as he’s the seasoned hiker. I chose the Sunset Trail, which runs behind the Sunset and Azalea campgrounds down the mountain to the edge of the park, almost to Lake Sequoia. The book listed it as a difficulty of 2 out of 5…. and it was a loop, with two waterfalls. Jeff’s only request was that the trails we went on had some kind of water fall or lake.
I always get massive blisters when we go hiking, even if it’s a calm hike around the local park. So when I picked up my outlet order from REI, I also got some blister preventing cushion pads for my feet.
We hadn’t even made it to the trail head when I had formed blisters on the back of both ankles, with the skin on the left one already rubbed off. WITH THE BLISTER PADS STILL ON!
Fortunately, we had to return to the car anyway to grab the trail guide because we couldn’t find the trail head. My GPS didn’t have the trail on it, which I didn’t even check ahead for because the map loaded was supposed to have all the trails on it! Jeff taped up my ankles, and we went on our way again.
After finally climbing a small hill covered in boulders, we finally found the trail. This was when Jeff looked at the trail guide book and saw that the trail was 7 miles long with a change in elevation of 1000 ft. That means we were basically climbing down part of the mountain and then climbing back up. What really sucked was climbing down and then back up, just to head further down the mountain again!
Here we are right before the trail head… I took these pictures because we have no idea WHAT that plant was! It was really weird to see a whole meadow of these plants. (Remember, click on the photos to make them larger. If you’re reading this in a RSS reader you’re going to need to take the jump to the site.)
Anyone have any idea what it is? I’ll send you a coupon to our etsy store if you’re the first person to figure it out.
This is what the trail was like for the first three miles. Those were the best three miles of the entire trail. For two of them, I got to stare at Jeff’s perfect calf muscles and strong guns.
After a mile or something in, we finally got to the top of what would soon become Viola Falls, I think. In order to get to those falls, you have to take a separate trail for some distance. We just didn’t feel up to that, because we knew it was going to be rough later and Viola Falls weren’t anything special according to the guide.
But, it was at that bridge that something terrible happened. I decided to adjust my shutter speed to get some awesome photos of the water flowing over the rocks. Well, I got rushed because there were some more hikers behind us. Didn’t have a chance to set up a good shot.
This is the one and only shot I managed to get. I hate it.
And, I forgot to change the camera back to auto.
For the rest of the day.
I didn’t realize it until the next morning on another outing with my mom and brother.
I was MAD. LIVID. You see, I for some reason never checked the photos as I took them. I have a door over the viewing screen to protect it, and to shield light when I do check the photos. If there’s a lesson to be learned, always check your settings & the photos as you go!
And when we finally reached the SPECTACULAR Ella Falls, I took dozens of photos.
Most of them turned out like this.
Some I was able to adjust the levels in Photoshop to get this.
Mom, you never should have let me spend my money on that DSLR. We should have known they’d be a day when I would totally screw up an adventure by messing around and being creative.
This one isn’t too bad, after making massive adjustments of the levels. For those of you who have never traveled to California, this is a Giant Sequoia. I believe they are only in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The ground around this tree was littered with large fallen branches. As I took this picture Jeff said, “We probably shouldn’t be standing here with all these huge branches on the ground…” Later, we were under a part of the trail that was completely covered overhead by trees — and we heard a branch start to crack and fall. Let’s just say we were moving as fast as we could.
And this little stream turned out without too much blur.
Anyways, back to the adventure. You see, I’m not in the best shape. This last semester was rough, school came before exercise. Who in the right mind, after months of no exercise, goes on a hardcore hike the Saturday after finals? Apparently I need to be committed, because that’s exactly what I did.
Here Jeff tried to take a picture of me. I was waving him away because I was all sweaty and gross. This was while we were heading BACK UP the mountainside. We had to stop often because all the sudden it would get crazy steep. Oh, and have I mentioned that my heart beats irregularly? Yeah, match that up with months of not exercising, high elevation…. I’m surprised at how well I did! In October, when we did the General Sherman trail in Sequoia NP, my heart hated me! And that was a tiny trail!
And yes, I’m wearing a fanny pack. But it’s a cute one. From REI. I got it for hiking and geocaching. My kids are going to think I’m so cool.
So, just like with Viola Falls, there was a little trail jutting off to Lake Sequoia, outside of the park. Well, had I of been in better shape and Jeff’s knee not hurting, we probably would have taken it and done some geocaching. Jeff really wanted to see the lake, and they was supposedly an overlook of it on the trail.
Yeah, basically you could only see some blue between the trees. I have no idea how Jeff spotted it. Remember, click on the photos to make them larger.
About a mile out from Ella Falls, which was about in the middle of the trail, Jeff and I were dying. You see, after Ella Falls the trail continues on the old access road to the park from Lake Sequoia. That road hasn’t been used in decades, it was in some serious disrepair. What was killing me was the variations in steepness, it would go from being mildly steep to crazy steep. So, I’d just have to push myself and set goals to not stop. We were also dying because both of us were starving.
But after we came across these rented CAT vehicles, we seemed to catch a second wind. That equipment is one of the reasons our parks are running out of money. Their tags were expired by a few years, and they were obvisouly rented because of all of the signs on them saying they were rentals. Who knows how long they’ve been sitting there forgotten and how many tax dollars have been wasted on them.
Here’s a better photo of those guns I was telling you about. Oh, and the foot of a massive sequoia that fell over a meadow. The bank is hiding the rest of it, just imagine it going a tiny it further than the bottom of the photo.
Eventually, we came to the trailhead of another trail that picks up along the Sunset Trail. We got really excited because that meant we only had a quarter of a mile to go until we reached the parking lot at General Grant Tree.
And then we came across the ACTUAL trail head for it about half a mile further.
We (meaning I) were devasted. Jeff suggested we sit and rest for awhile and breathe in the mountain air and listen to the mountain sounds.
Which somehow included the sound of a shuttle bus coming down the road towards us. The very road we were sitting in the middle of.
It was definitely one of those movie moments.
And seeing how we were sitting near the trailhead that was supposedly a quarter mile from the parking lot, there is no way that trail was only 7 miles long. It had to of been 8 or 9. Originally it could have been 7, but I think they’ve had to reroute it around fallen trees and stuff.
Anyways, after we reached the parking lot and splashed cold water on our faces, we debated where the trail picked up. Jeff thought we just followed the road, and I thought there was actually a trail somewhere. We got out the book, saw that following the road was much farther than continuing on the trail… so we continued on the trail.
The trail lead up the mountain some more, into Azalea campground — the campground I spent many days of my childhood in. The campsite we always camped at was up to a meadow like this one, but I don’t think it was this one.
Somewhere in this last mile of the trail, I had a massive blister covering the whole pad of my right foot. It popped. I survived until the last quarter of a mile without telling Jeff about it. I had to tell him, the boy was hungry and his lunch was nearby so he was going at speeds I couldn’t handle.
Finally, we made it back to Grant Grove Village where we ate the cute little sandwiches Jeff made that morning. Turkey pastrami, avocado, mustard, and Tilamook Cracked Pepper Smoked Cheddar (MY FAVORITE CHEESE!) Remember the sandwich wraps and snack bags from yesterday’s Thrifty Tuesday / Saturday School post? The snack bags are there in the background, full of original fishy crackers and reduced fat Gardetto’s. That blue this is Jeff’s First Aid kit. After lunch he taped up my feet like I just had surgery.
Imagine my horror when my FAVORITE news anchor/reporter, John Quinones of ABC’s Primetime, walked out of the giftshop. We made eye contact. He hightailed it out of there. Aparently, he was at my college getting an award during the graduation ceremonies. I had no idea!
Later, we left the park to go to Hume Lake and rest for awhile before dinner. We sat on a bench by the docks. I people/dog watched while Jeff slept on my shoulder. I’m really hating myself for not changing back the shutter speed, because this dog was AMAZING. We ran into a lot of people we knew at Hume, from back home. At dinner, Jeff remembered that a friend of his from South Africa was supposed to be at Hume, but the office had already closed so we couldn’t ask.
And so we drove home.
We stopped at my mom’s on the way back to Jeff’s to borrow her foot spa and epsom salts. There’s more to this adventure that I need to share in another post.
