Day 12

The land of the giants.

We are in Sequoia National Park! Its beauty easily pars that of Grand Canyon and Zion. We woke up this morning to song birds in Malibu, ate grits and oatmeal, and drove North East. We found gas for the great price of $4.29 a gallon! Much better than the $4.49 down the street ($4.55 is the most expensive we saw in California yet). Later we filled up for $4.19. We drove through California’s Central Valley, where a lot, if not most of America’s produce, meats, and dairy is raised. The drive up the foothills into Sequoia was beautiful, but the forest at the top of the mountains is amazing. If you think your puny maple or oak tree is big back in NC, wait until you see a sequoia. It’s like walking through a make believe world, like Disney World in the Sierras. We set up camp, had lunch, and went on a quick hike to a beautiful waterfall surrounded by huge boulders, fallen hundreds or thousands of years ago from their homes, now cliffs towering a thousand feet above us on both sides. On the way to the falls a doe approached us on the trail and we got some great pictures. For dinner we got creative and used one of the nine (9) mac n’ cheese boxes we brought to make plain noodles and added artichoke hearts and marinara sauce to it.   Unfortunately, I spilled the noodles into the fire pit on the first try, trying to drain them (we forgot a strainer), so good thing we brought so many boxes! It got down to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, so we pilled on the layers to get a good nights rest.