Day 12: July 8, 2009 – Kingsburg, CA to Kings Canyon National ParkCatching up and Looking up
We woke from a restful nights sleep in an actual bed – felt a little strange, but we were fully grateful for the hospitality shown by Seth and Charlotte. Melissa got out of bed first and got the car in order, folded laundry and began the previous day’s blog in Microsoft Word. After showering and enjoying a bagel for breakfast, we made our way down the road toward Charlotte’s parent’s house where we were blessed with use of the internet. After posting four blogs and catching up on pictures we were confident that we had set our blog readers minds at ease and given them some more great material to enjoy with a cup of tea.
Soon as all of our “house-keeping” chores were done we were finally ready to make our way toward Kings Canyon National Park. Fortunately for us, it was about the lunch hour and the day before we had spotted an In-N-Out, we had only one detour before making it into the National Park. Our In-N-Out experience was so absolutely amazing that we have penned the following:
Ode to In-N-Out
In-N-Out
Fresh-N-Tasty
Ground Beef Patty
Never seen the freezer
Lettuce, Crisp
Tomato, Juicy
Onion, Potent
Sauce, Secret
Potatoes
Diced Daily
No Trans-Fat
Chocolate Milk Shake
Mmm…
How can you beat that?
And it was from the experience that we made our way into Kings Canyon National Park. Within about an hour we had entered the park gates and began our trek to various scenic outlooks, trails, and of course the big tree of Kings Canyon, General Grant. However, before all of these adventures began, we stopped by the Post Office where we heard the best story of the trip thus far:
The Story of Wedgie Man
Recently, a man was trekking up the infamous Half Dome which is located in Yosemite National Park. The granite rock is familiar with trekkers and tourists alike as it has been conveniently laden with chain cables for those who dare to scale it’s heights. As is common within the National Parks that have glorious views from high places, a few people have lost their lives at Half Dome. This is not, however, the case for the star of our story. This man was enjoying his trek to the top of Half Dome when he slipped and fell off the rock. This could have marked the end for our star, but miraculously his sweat pants caught on to a rock or other protruding source and held the man safely for over three hours while park authorities freed him from what he shall come to know as “the wedgie that saved his life.”
From this, we began our exploration of Kings Canyon National Park. There has been something especially enamoring about these giant Sequoias, neither of us seem to be able to get enough of them. Viewing General Grant we were impressed with the random facts presented with the truth that General Grant is the 3rd largest tree for volume. That translates into: If this tree were the gas tank of your car, you would be able to drive around the world 350 times!!! If you wanted to hug this tree, it would take 20 people, hand-to-hand, to make it all the way around. That’s a big tree! Many trees in Wyoming can easily be hugged by one individual, three maximum. As we drove through the rest of the park we were impressed with canyon views, the roaring Kings River and a couple of falls; Grizzly Falls and Roaring Falls. We even had the opportunity to discover what we always knew must exist but never knew where: Mt. Harrington! You read correctly, while at the Grizzly Falls viewing a map of the falls origin we discovered on the sign OUR Mountain! I guess we’ll have to return some day in order to scale the mountain that bears our name.
Our day of exploring coming to a conclusion we made our way to a camping sight within the Sequoia National Forest. This was our first camping night where we set the tent up during daylight and had some time to enjoy some reading and writing some postcards for friends and family. As always, a peaceful nights sleep awaited us. Although Melissa was overly concerned that bears might end up in their campsite since they had spit their toothpaste outside instead of in a plastic bottle…fortunately no bears have yet made their way into our campsites.
Recently, a man was trekking up the infamous Half Dome which is located in Yosemite National Park. The granite rock is familiar with trekkers and tourists alike as it has been conveniently laden with chain cables for those who dare to scale it’s heights. As is common within the National Parks that have glorious views from high places, a few people have lost their lives at Half Dome. This is not, however, the case for the star of our story. This man was enjoying his trek to the top of Half Dome when he slipped and fell off the rock. This could have marked the end for our star, but miraculously his sweat pants caught on to a rock or other protruding source and held the man safely for over three hours while park authorities freed him from what he shall come to know as “the wedgie that saved his life.”
From this, we began our exploration of Kings Canyon National Park. There has been something especially enamoring about these giant Sequoias, neither of us seem to be able to get enough of them. Viewing General Grant we were impressed with the random facts presented with the truth that General Grant is the 3rd largest tree for volume. That translates into: If this tree were the gas tank of your car, you would be able to drive around the world 350 times!!! If you wanted to hug this tree, it would take 20 people, hand-to-hand, to make it all the way around. That’s a big tree! Many trees in Wyoming can easily be hugged by one individual, three maximum. As we drove through the rest of the park we were impressed with canyon views, the roaring Kings River and a couple of falls; Grizzly Falls and Roaring Falls. We even had the opportunity to discover what we always knew must exist but never knew where: Mt. Harrington! You read correctly, while at the Grizzly Falls viewing a map of the falls origin we discovered on the sign OUR Mountain! I guess we’ll have to return some day in order to scale the mountain that bears our name.
Our day of exploring coming to a conclusion we made our way to a camping sight within the Sequoia National Forest. This was our first camping night where we set the tent up during daylight and had some time to enjoy some reading and writing some postcards for friends and family. As always, a peaceful nights sleep awaited us. Although Melissa was overly concerned that bears might end up in their campsite since they had spit their toothpaste outside instead of in a plastic bottle…fortunately no bears have yet made their way into our campsites.
3 comments:
In 'n' Out is my favorite fast food joint of all time!!!
do you know the secret codes for In-n-Out?
YOU WROTE A POEM TO IN-N-OUT! I love you because of this!
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