Day 48

Dave and I got up early to get things started for an early exit. We wanted to make sure to get Dave to the airport well before his flight. We had an easy no-cook breakfast ready for the car for all of us and I was driving us away by 7:15. Not bad!

The drive out of the park was beautiful and before we knew it we were in the desert of Arizona. We made a quick stop at Cliff Dwellings again. We'd stopped here 8 years ago but Brayden was the only one who remembered. Dave researched on our drive and told us these rock houses were built during the Depression by a couple and ended up being a popular stop. It became a restaurant and place for gas for those traveling through the area.





We made it to the airport just on time so Dave was happy to not have to stress about making his flight. He later text me to let me know there were only two gates and little food options so he was pretty bored!

Our next stop was the Petrified Forest National Park. There were signs and we were reminded at the entrance station to leave all things found at the park, especially rocks and trees. I'm not sure who would think to pick up one of the 800-pound trees but maybe?

We learned how the trees turned into beautiful petrified rocks. It was neat to feel the difference  between regular wood and the same size petrified wood.

We learned this park has a wealth of fossils as well. The kids tried their hand at finding and cleaning fossils too. They weren't nearly as careful and particular as the archaeologists but they had fun!

We watched the park movie and learned a bunch from all the exhibits. I had planned to hike a couple trails but it was incredibly hot so we stopped by the gift store and got back on the road. I will be stopping back by here another day when it's cooler and with Dave to really enjoy the entire park! I also saw all kinds of signs for Route 66 that ran parallel to the interstate. If we hadn't had such a long drive I would have liked to visit some of the Route 66 stops along the way.

We drove another few hours and arrived to Bluewater State Park just in time for a visit to the lake before dinner. The kids were a little nervous about the algae in the water so they decided to hang out on the beach.

By the time we finished dinner and cleaned up it was time to get ready for bed.  We were getting up early yet again because we had a birthday to celebrate the next day!

Day 44

We were awakened at 4am by Brayden who said he didn't feel well. He hasn't ever gotten up in the middle of the night on a trip so I knew this wasn't good. He said he felt better on our way back from the bathroom but I gave him a sick bag to take back into the tent just in case. I didn't go back to sleep again and was glad I gave him the bag at 6am. The kids had rarely been sick on the trip and now each of them had been sick on this one - yuck! Being sick is never fun, but on vacation in a tent has to be pretty bad.

He said he felt a little better when he got up a little later so we packed backpacks again after a quick breakfast. We met Grammie and Ryan at our visitors center to drive to our morning ranger hike. We decided to drive today because we wanted to get back a little quicker to fit in an afternoon hike.

On our way to the parking area we made sure to go under Tunnel Log - a sequoia that fell about 300 years ago. We were early to the hike so I took some time to read about the High Sierra Trail. This trail was 60 miles across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Mt McKinley at more than 14,000 feet.

The hike to Tharpe's Log was easy and quick. The ranger stopped a few times to tell us a few things but most we'd already learned in our time there already. I was elbowed again as the kids spotted the ranger who is following us everywhere.

Laney was most excited to see the one-log cabin so Dave handed her the camera. According to historical accounts Hale Tharpe created this home inside a downed sequoia tree so he could bring his cattle in the summers to graze in the meadow just outside the front door. He befriended the local Potwisha Native American tribe who showed him all around the Giant Forest and Morro Rock. One more settlers came to the area they brought disease that killed most of the tribe while the few that remained left the area completely.











Brayden still wasn't feeling well so he walked back to the parking area with Grammie while the rest of us continued down the trail to Chimney Tree. The heartwood of this tree was burned out but the bark still remained. We all easily fit inside it was so big!

Our next stop was Morro Rock. This rock has been popular to scale since only the Native Americans lived in the area. Back them people scaled the granite rock by climbing in the cracks between rocks. Once it became a national park they added wooden stairs to the top. These stairs were rickety and had issues with rot from the snow during the winter. Finally an architect was called in who created steps carved into the rock or made of concrete. They snake around the rock to maintain the integrity and shape of the rock for visitors to enjoy.









We lucked into one of the 10 parking spaces and grabbed the camera for the climb. Brayden opted out so he sat in the shade by the trail head still looking miserable. The rest of us made the 400-step climb to enjoy the view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the foothills of the park. We even spotted some of the hairpin turns we would be taking the next day when we left!

The car ride back to the campsite did Brayden in so he decided to lay down in the tent for awhile. Dave bought him some Gatorade to see if he could keep it down for awhile. The rest of us ate some lunch then Grammie and I got ready to hike a trail to Topokah Falls. Dave stayed behind with the girls and I was hopeful he would be so kind to do our laundry while we were gone.



The trail to the falls was beautiful although a little bit warm. We are used to hiking mostly in the forest and there were big open sections in the sun. The river we hiked next to was refreshingly cold though!

There were lovely meadows about every 1000 feet that grabbed my attention off the trail. The mountain we would be hiking to popped up into view in one of the meadows as well. The bees were happily buzzing to every single flower in the meadows so you could hear a constant buzz all around.

About an hour into the hike we made it to the falls! I was so warm I thought about swimming but wasn't thrilled about hiking back wet. The water fall was running well but I can only imagine how strong it was in the spring!










I said goodbye to Grammie at the trailhead and was greeted by the girls on my walk back to the campsite. They had been having fun with their Rip It journals while I was gone. Brayden didn't have as much fun since he got sick again. We tried graham crackers and bottled water to see if that would be better. Dave was (HOORAY!) away doing the laundry! I was able to finish my book before we made some veggie chili for dinner. Brayden requested a grilled cheese and we were all hoping he was starting to feel better.

The girls asked if I'd felt the water in the river and I said I had but I wanted to go put my feet in after the long day of hiking. They and Dave joined me for an extremely cold and refreshing soak. Ryan and Laney even got all the way in to their shorts!

Laney had enough after a minute or so but Ryan loved exploring the river. She found rocks for everyone and threw the ones back she didn't like. She might as well have gone swimming!

We had a visit from a few younger mule deer while we were eating but they didn't stay too long. We ate quickly because we had another program to get to tonight. This one was about the CCC in Sequoia so we were all very interested in going. Brayden even felt relatively well enough to go.

We have learned a lot at several parks about the impact the CCC had on the infrastructure and buildings in each park. We've also seen numerous buildings attributed to the hard work of these young men. It was no different in Sequoia with roads, walls, and buildings built by these guys.

This ranger's program was unique because she took us on a drive through the park and showed exactly what projects the CCC accomplished during their few years in the park. A few of the stops we would be making the next day on the way out of the park were on the list. Sequoia credits the CCC as making the biggest contribution to the park in its history. Shortly after the program started our friendly ranger that we see everywhere sat next to Laney. We joked after the program that she would be hanging out at our hotel next!

We forgot to bring headlamps to the amphitheater so we tried to walk real close to a few other people until they turned off to their site. This park was incredibly dark at night! The moon wasn't up yet so we slowly walked back until we saw our familiar neighbors.

About 30 minutes after we said goodnight Brayden was up not feeling well again. Dave offered to switch tents with him and that seemed to make him feel a little better. We tried a couple different things before he eventually got sick again. About an hour later I heard him breathing heavy finally asleep. Tonight was his night for using 2 sleeping bags but we ended up proping him up with one of them so I forfeited my hammock underquilt for his feet. I was hoping I'd be ok with just my sleeping bag and wearing a sweatshirt!

Day 43

We woke the kids up this morning with Dave's famous hashbrown breakfast. Ryan was thrilled! And it was definitely delicious. We had a long day ahead of us so we packed lots of snacks and water in backpacks and walked to the visitors center.

The exhibits as usual were very interesting. The kids and I spent at least 20 minutes digesting this display of how every living things needs each other. When people interfere and try to help by removing or adding something to the mix it messes all these things up!

We watched a very interesting movie about tourism in Sequoia. Once it became a national park there were cabins, campgrounds, a lodge and other comfort buildings built in the middle of the Giant Forest. At one time there were more than 300 buildings. The trees started to suffer because of many reasons but mainly the addition of plumbing, pollution, and  people. Some sequoia trees were even cut down because they were threatening to fall on cabins. Finally someone realized this wasn't a great idea so the buildings were all torn down and taken away in the 1980s. There were amazing before and after photos that showed the area's gentle return to nature. I was excited to see it today!

Ryan and I decided to watch a quick movie about prescribed fires.  There were these type of fires often where we live so we are familiar with them but I learned a little more how they prepare and execute the fires. Sequoias are trees that thrive after a fire with added sunshine to the forest floor and the opening of their cones.

The movie in the auditorium was about bears in Sequoia so we stayed for that one as well. Through all our travels we have learned so much about bear safety and what parks are doing to try to keep bears wild. This movie was more of the same with footage of car breakins and campground raids.

We hopped on the park shuttle next destined for the General Sherman Tree. I was thrilled to not have to drive and find parking in the popular areas. I would think this option is much better for the environment as well. I wish more parks would offer this to their guests!

The trail down to the tree was an easy walk on a paved path into a grove of sequoias. General Sherman tree is actually dead on the top but is still growing at the bottom to be the earth's largest living thing.  This guy is a young 2,200 years old!

After walking around the whole tree we checked out the rest of the grove. There were twins where you could see fire scars from different years. The fire scars were so big we could fit inside them!









There was also a tunnel carved out of a fallen tree that you could walk under. Us short people didn't even have to duck!




I was excited to see there was a program on the Buffalo soldiers this afternoon so we headed there next. The presenter was an intern that seemed to have a ton of knowledge about one of the leaders who visited Sequoia for a sunmer, Charles Young. Before there were national parks these protected areas were managed by the military. A few summers they were managed by a group of Buffalo Soldiers that accomplished more in one summer than other had the past three years.  This was definitely a topic we were going to add to our homeschool list as I had no idea this program even existed! We were joined at the end of the talk by our ranger from the program the night before. She added a few facts that she could share as well.

Dave noticed there was a food truck in the parking lot so we grabbed a quick lunch next before hopping back on the bus to the Giant Forest.  In front of the museum was a tree called The Sentinel that was considered an "average" sequoia tree. It was heavier than 2 fully-loaded jumbo jets. It was as tall as the path to my kids way down there at the end!





We still had about 45 minutes until the ranger hike we wanted to go on so we explored the museum for a little while.  We learned how difficult it was for the sequoia seed to make it into a mature tree - a 1 in a billion chance! We all took turns spinning the wheel to see if our seed would survive but none of us were successful.

Our ranger, Zoe, met us outside the visitors center for a hike around the Giant Forest.  We always seem to learn so much so fast during these programs! Our first stop was the junction with the Bear Hill trail. Back in the mid-1900s this was the garbage dump for the park. Seeing an easy meal, the bears would come at nights and get their fill of all the leftovers they could eat. Pretty soon after the park saw interest from the public to watch this so they built stadium seating. It wasn't until the bear got aggressive with eachother - fighting over the food and killing cubs who got in the middle of it - that park rangers put an end to this practice. We have learned this happened at other national parks as well and it appears we are still trying to fix the damage we did.

As we were listening to our ranger tell us this story, Dave points behind her and informs all of us that there is a bear a little up on the hill behind her. At first I thought he was kidding and I'm sure she was too but sure enough he was there! This was another yearling that at first seemed very interested in getting some grubs from a fallen tree but his attention turned to us. We watched and took pictures as he walked around peeking at us over branches and through bushes. Once we were all past him the ranger went back to try to shoo him away. They played peek-a-boo around a large pine tree a couple of times until he finally decided he was done with us.

I was elbowed by the kids as we continued our hike as we passed the ranger from the progam the night before. She was following us!

A few minutes later we were walking around a meadow and the ranger spotted a yellow-bellied marmot on a log next to the trail. This was a great wildlife day for her! He is a little hard to spot in this picture since he is in the sun but take it from the girls' reaction of "Awwwwww!" that he was very cute!










Ryan spotted this giant pine cone next to the trail. She found out it is from a sugar pine - the tallest conifer with the largest pine cones. It was bigger than her head!










I was having a difficult time spotting younger sequoias since their bark isn't red yet and the leaves looked so similar to other trees in the area. Our ranger took the time at our next spot to show everyone the difference between the incense-cedar and sequoia. We also stopped at a grove of what looked like baby sequoias at about 3 feet tall. She estimated they were a young 40 years old. They were in a shady spot so those sun-lovers probably weren't going to survive to the size of an average sequoia.

We took the shuttle back to our area to shop for post cards, stickers and such. Grammie shuttled back to her campground and we spend the afternoon exploring, reading, and playing cards. Ryan decided to eat dinner with us and go to our campground program that sounded fun - Capitalists, Cons, and Conservationists!

Dave and Ryan explored the area behind our campsite to add more pages to her Scavenger Hunt book. She'd brought it along on the trip to add some interesting items but until now she'd refused to do it without Dave doing it with her. For the second project Dave convinced her to work with Laney on an art project with something the found that was broken. They decided on making a stained glass sequoia tree with a piece of plastic they found in the road.



As I was getting ready to cook dinner we had some visitors. Just that afternoon I'd mentioned we hadn't seen any deer since we'd been at this park. Within an hour here was a bachelor group of mule deer. Laney took pictures as we stood and watched them for a few minutes.

As the sun was setting we learned about Hale Tharpe - the original settler in the area and his relationship with the Potwisha Native Americans. We learned about the government's idea to bring camels to the west, fake gold and silver mines, and the Kuwea Colony who first named the Sherman Tree the Karl Marx tree. So much history in one night! 

Day 28

We were all delighted to be able to snuggle in all our covers last night as we were back to our chilly 50 degree nights. I can get used to this! After some warm and filling cheese grits we were packed up and back on the road. Our drive this day was pretty short to our pinnacle stop in Washington - Olympic National Park.

After we got Grammie checked in at her park we headed straight to the visitors center to get all the information we could. We would be staying about 45 minutes from each other and I was positive I wouldn't have service in this park so we needed a plan to be able to spend our time wisely here.

The park ranger was extremely helpful especially once he found out we were from Florida. I told him the plans I had and he gave us all the information we needed to plan it out. Lola wasn't allowed to go with us much here since it is classified as wilderness but he did show us a few spots.

He also told us Olympic National Park is a peninsula that had its land bridge covered in a glacier for so many years it isolated the area like an island. There are no grizzly bears, no poisonous snakes, no no-see-ums, no moose, no poison ivy or oak, and no ticks. Other than no moose it sounds like paradise to me!

We took a few minutes to watch the movie about the diversity of the park next. Once it was finished I was even more excited to explore the park!

Ryan is showing how big this tree was when the Declaration of Independence was signed!

We explored the museum first then headed to a local seafood restaurant for dinner. Armed with all our maps and schedules Grammie and I made a plan for the next few days while the kids enjoyed their local craft sodas. Our food was delicious and the kids even had room for dessert. We just about had to roll them out of there though!

Our little town of Port Angeles closes up on Sundays so we were out of luck to buy t-shirts tonight. We dropped Grammie and Ryan off at their spot instead and headed to ours. The kids were able to talk to Dave tonight until we were about 20 minutes from our campground. The drive was beautiful along Crescent Lake bordered with tall trees and mountains. We would be returning here for a hike but I had to stop for a quick picture!

Once we set up in our little nook of the campground we drove to the hot springs to see if we had time for a quick dip. It was twilight swim time so we had about an hour to enjoy to hot springs. My experience with hot springs is limited to Costa Rica and Canada and these smelled very different! As we walked out there was an unmistakable sulfur smell that only got stronger once we got in the first pool.  The water felt amazing though!

We moved to a pool that wasn't bubbling as much and that seemed to help. Or maybe we were just getting used to it. The kids got too warm so they moved to the cool pool. I knew I wouldn't be able to make the transition and still be smiling so I stayed put. Once I got too warm I did try to get into the cool pool but couldn't make it in past my legs so I headed to the showers. The kids enjoyed the pool as I sat by bundled up in one of their towels. It gets cool quick once the sun goes behind the mountains!

By the time we made it back to the campsite it was dark and we were ready for bed. Laney and I read for about 10 minutes and we all talked for about 10 more before we all just got quiet. The hot springs were the soothing end to the day that we needed!