This morning, we awoke to crisp, mountain air ( no bears) at our cabin in the woods. We packed the car, cleaned the cabin as directed by the owner and were on or way to Kings Canyon and Sequoia. We bypassed a Mc Donalds for our morning coffee and never found another one. Learned a lesson from that one! As the road wound down out of Yosemite, Jerry asked the question: “Do you suppose there is a straight road in California—one where you don t kiss the rocks on both sides.” We eventually did hit some straight roads in the valley. Between Oakhurst and Fresno, we remarked that it looked more like Montana and Wyoming and we expected to see our cowboy on a horse any minute.
We drove through Fresno, CA on a new road that even our GPSs didn’t recognize. This was the first city traffic we had seen since Sacramento. It wasn’t long, though, until we were back into the rolling hills and the fertile Fresno valley. We saw lots of fields, orchards and vineyards growing apricots, peaches, nectarines, oranges, grapes and olives. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought a bunch of the sweetest, seedless red grapes—straight from the vineyards. We enjoyed these with our lunch.
We eventually started our climb from the valley floor at 1000 ft to 7,000 ft once inside Kings Canyon Park. All the curves drove the compass nuts. We found out that our National Geographic Parks app has a compass as well as gives the altitude. The GPS gives the altitude, too, but this is fun to follow on the I-Pad.
We thought we couldn’t be wowed any more after all the previous parks, but once again we heard a lot of OMG and one WOW after another. 
Lydia and I have to laugh at the guys or we would be hopping mad. You would think after 6 parks, hundreds of stops, and over 5,000 miles, they would remember to let us out of the back seat when they stop (child safety locks engage) but, no, we are still reminding them as they grab their cameras and run as if those rocks and canyons are leaving sometime soon!
We follow along the South Fork Kings River and are delighted to see that there is actually water. We have seen so many dry creeks and rivers and waterfalls.
The vistas are never ending as we round one corner after the other. On our way out of the canyon, the guys say “ no more photos” and it lasts less than 5 minutes as another opportunity presents itself.
We have spent quite a long time in Kings Canyon and know we need too move ahead to reach Sequoia by early afternoon. The drive through Sequoia on the Generals Highway is a twisty, curvy road like we have never seen. We are familiar with the story of the sequoia trees, but we are awed by still more of these historic, sentinel trees. The oldest of living things on earth is the General Sherman Giant Sequoia at 274 ft tall with a diameter of 15 feet. Estimates give the age at 2200 years. There is enough wood in this tree to build 85 houses. One unique aspect of the trees is that they have a water-based sap, so they are not as flammable and are able to survive fires over many years. We were eager to take our photo with the General and lined up to take our turn…..only to learn that we had the wrong darn tree! The light was perfect, it WAS a big tree and we took our pictures. Well, after we were told it was the wrong tree, we moved on into the Giant Grove and found the right tree. 
Even after having seen the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite, we were still enthralled by these trees. At times it was so quiet, you just knew you were in the presence of something much greater than you.
Finally, we said goodbye to the sequoias and headed down the mountain with more twists and turns than you can imagine. 
We were happy that we had booked rooms in Three Rivers as all of us had had enough driving and riding for one day.
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