Sequoia National Park

Jill's Journal: We’re not “tree huggers” by any stretch of the imagination, but when in Rome…!

In a random grove in Central California’s Sequoia National Park along the Generals Highway (the twisty road that connects Sequoia with Kings Canyon), we spotted a few unfenced Giant Sequoia trees and couldn’t resist seeing these gentle giants close up.

“The Pacific Coast…is the paradise of conifers. Here nearly all of them are giants, and display a beauty and magnificence unknown elsewhere.”
–John Muir, 1901

Our day in Sequoia began at Three Rivers, the closest town to the entrance of the national park. This picture is actually a shout-out to our brother-in-law, Adam, who was born in this cute little town in the middle of nowhere.

Established in 1890, Sequoia is America’s second-oldest national park after Yellowstone. This welcome sign has been here since the 1930s, when it was made by a Civilian Conservation Corps worker from Arkansas.

Tunnel Rock, a huge “balanced” granite boulder under which the road into Sequoia once led, greets visitors soon after Sequoia’s main entrance. The road now bypasses the rock.

Our girls love places like this. I just couldn't resist sharing this picture.

One of our main stops in Sequoia had nothing to do with big trees. It was a hike up Moro Rock, a large granite dome, which offers a beautiful view of the Great Western Divide from the top. I *think* this is Moro Rock from quite a distance away.

The steep, narrow trail to the top features over 350 steps and is not for the faint of heart. Wooden steps were first put in place in 1917 and replaced with concrete in 1931.

The top! Even at only 6,725 feet, it feels like the top of the world.

Why is going down so much easier?

Mama bear and her cub! Seeing this pair was a serendipitous moment for Rob and Rob alone. I was in the midst of taking all three girls to the restroom after our Moro Rock climb while Rob retrieved our car from a quarter-mile away. It seemed to take an unusually long time for Rob to return and the girls and I were so excited to hear he’d spent 10 minutes watching these bears. Rob has video of the mama tearing apart a piece of a fallen tree to eat the bugs inside while the baby capered around. So very, very awesome.

The closest the girls and I got to any significant wildlife in Sequoia was this deer (because I don’t think squirrels quite count).

Of course the main attraction in Sequoia is the Giant Forest. Look at the trunk of an average tree (in the foreground) compared to a Giant Sequoia in the background. It’s a humbling experience walking among the land of giants.

From a tremendous distance away, one can spot the General Sherman Tree. This is the world’s largest tree by volume. It’s located twenty-seven miles south of the General Grant Tree we’d seen in Kings Canyon.

The girls are standing near the base of the tree. I backed up as far as possible and still couldn’t fit the entire tree in the frame while remaining close enough to actually spot them in the picture. Although the General Sherman Tree is not the tallest or the widest tree in the world, it is still considered the largest living tree on earth due to its volume and that was a hard thing to explain to them. At about 2,100 years old and as tall as the Statue of Liberty, it is believed to weigh 2.7 million pounds, containing more wood in its trunk than any other tree. Interestingly, the top of the Sherman Tree is dead but that doesn’t stop this Giant Sequoia from continuing to grow wider at the trunk. The General Sherman Tree adds enough wood each year to make the equivalent of a 60-foot-tall tree measuring one foot in diameter.

The tree was named in 1879 for the Civil War’s General William T. Sherman, hero according to the North and demon according to the South. (His destruction of a large swath of the Confederacy during his “March to the Sea” was particularly brutal.) A six-foot-tall human looking up at the Sherman Tree is the equivalent of a mouse looking up at a six-foot-tall man. These random guys to the left of the tree base (sorry folks!) looked about six feet tall. Do we really seem that big and intimidating to a mouse?

Farewell, Sequoia. This was far from our favorite national park, but we still had a pretty darn nice time. Such a marvelous country we have.

Ye Scurvy Dogs

Jill's Journal: Yesterday we did something entirely different! The five of us headed into popular beach destination Ocean City, Maryland, which is just 10 minutes away, and went on a pirate adventure. The girls were quickly painted with pirate tattoos and christened with pirate monikers: Excellent Erika, Mermaid Madelyn, and Vicious Victoria. And then we headed out to sea (or at least the bay).

The girls (and 20 of their closest honorary pirate friends) got to battle and defeat the evil Pirate Pete on an opposing "ship" with water cannons. They found a message in a bottle. And finally, they followed a treasure map through the bay to find sunken pirate treasure. What a fun kid adventure for our little scallywags!

With the girls still exclaiming, "Aaarrgh!," we then headed over to Ocean City's boardwalk and spent a little time strolling, people-watching, and enjoying ice cream. A lovely afternoon.

And then it was back to the ponies...and the deer! This awesome picture is of Madelyn in her bunk, dozing off herself to the sight of two deer napping not far from her window. Wow.

Wild Ponies!

**I wrote this soon after arriving on Saturday night -- it's still spectacular all these hours later!**

Jill's Journal: We made it! It was a long trek over multiple bridges, in three ocean-floor tunnels (but who’s counting?), and up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but when we pulled into Assateague State Park on Assateague Island in Maryland, it was all worth it. Immediately greeting us was the stunningly beautiful sight of wild ponies grazing. And it just got better.

Time and time again, we spotted small herds of wild ponies, some so close we could have touched them. The tiny foals, surely no more than a month or two old, earned particular “oohs and aahs” from the girls (and if I must admit it, from me too!). We quickly noticed deer as well and unlike usual deer, these creatures have no fear of people. One small one with five points on his antlers walked so nonchalantly through our campsite that I swear he nodded hello as he passed.

And if that weren’t enough points in the amazing factor, we are literally camping on the beach. Only a small sand dune stands between us and the Atlantic Ocean. This place is spectacular. We’d heard it was – this is why we had to make these reservations a year ago and why we pushed so hard to get here. I’m so thankful we did. This is an experience the girls are going to remember for the rest of their lives.

Like with anything in life, there are a few drawbacks – first, it’s hotter than blazes (where’s that ocean breeze?) and there are no hook-ups. We’re “dry camping,” which means no power, no water, no air conditioning, no nothing. Rob planned for this, so we do have our own limited power (lights and fans and refrigerator) from battery and generator and we do have a full 95-gallon tank of fresh water to use. But this is roughing it. The old me thought staying in anything less than a five-star hotel was roughing it, so I’ve come a long way. But I’m definitely still not a camper in the traditional sense and have no desire to become one. At the moment I’m enamored by the whole thing…there’s wild ponies, after all…but seven nights of “roughing it” may wear on me!

But right now, there’s wild ponies!

Mammoth Cave

Jill's Journal: Somehow we’ve lived only a few hours from Mammoth Cave National Park for all these years and never went. Shameful. Why did we never realize what a natural wonder was such a short drive away?

First, the park itself – beautiful. Over 52,000 acres of lush vegetation and eye candy. Within our first three minutes in the park, we saw a deer and fawn on the side of the road, nearly hit a wild turkey crossing the road, and passed within inches of a vulture having a lunch of turtle. There are over 70 miles of horseback riding trails in the park – why did I not know this? I am kicking myself for never taking advantage of it before.

Regrets aside, Rob took off work a little early today to join us on an introductory tour of Mammoth Cave. I’ve been on other cave tours in different parts of the country and had never been wowed. Today, I was wowed. Seriously wowed. Phenomenal.

Mammoth Cave (the picture is of the entrance) is over 365 miles long and geologists believe there are approximately 500 more miles waiting to be discovered. It’s the longest known cave in the world and is designated as a World Heritage Site. And it’s not just long (and wide), it’s tall too. At one point, in an area of the cave known as the Rotunda, I asked the ranger how high the “ceiling” was because it just seemed so…mammoth. The answer? Eighty feet. Amazing. We were approximately 150 feet underground at that spot.

Mummies and artifacts found deep in the cave (approximately seven miles in!) show that Native Americans mined gypsum from the walls as long as 2,400 years ago. More recently, it was used as a saltpeter mine for U.S. forces during the War of 1812. Saltpeter is a key component of gunpowder and became a necessity when the British blockaded U.S. ports. Much original mining equipment from that effort nearly 200 years ago remains – including some of the innovative water piping of the time. Miners hollowed out yellow poplar trees (Kentucky’s official state tree) and banded them together to create an impressive system of pipes.

After the War of 1812 was over, the U.S. didn’t have such a need for saltpeter and the mine was shut down. Someone realized what a spectacular cave it was and decided to try the tourist thing in 1816. Mammoth Cave has been open to the public ever since, making it the second-oldest tourism destination in the 50 states (behind only Niagara Falls). The first hotel was built at the site in 1837 and it became a National Park in 1926.

The cave remains at 56 degrees year-round, which felt awfully chilly compared to the sweltering conditions outside. Unfortunately, the girls found the whole experience pretty boring, with one grand exception: the ranger wanted to show us how dark it is inside a cave, so he killed all the power. Trust me, there is no dark on the surface of the earth that compares. You could literally hold your hand a centimeter from your face and not be able to see it. There was, however, one tiny thing we could see – two of the girls had on a glow-in-the-dark silly bandz (a rubberband/bracelet fad of the moment). Those little rubberbands dimly glowed on those little wrists and completely cracked us all up!