I woke up pretty much when the sun came up, because since we had arrived so late in the evening, we had to pick from a handful of uneven sites to park at. The one we ended up with slanted downhill so badly we had to sleep on the opposite side of the bed so all that blood didn’t rush to our heads. If only we had some leveling blocks with us! (Next time we will be more prepared…) At any rate, we had to get moving because we had to vacate our spot by 11a.m., and we planned on hiking down to see the General Grant tree before we left. I took June on a long walk around the campgrounds, since dogs are not allowed on any national park trails or paths. Then we set off to see this tree, the 3rd largest tree in the world!
I felt like I had been shrunk down, the trees were so massive all around us. In Colorado, we have big trees, but nothing compared to what we were seeing all around us. I kept thinking to myself that these trees weren’t even the biggest ones we would see! We were in complete awe. It’s a short thirty minute hike down to the Grant Tree Trail, and I do recommend walking the trail rather than driving to the parking lot, if you stay at a nearby campsite. It forces you to take your time and digest everything you are seeing. Once we arrived, we were with all the other folks who had come to see the big trees. Photographs really don’t do these behemoths justice. And beyond that, I gave up trying to capture some gallery-worthy shot after trying to take nearly a hundred pictures and realizing this was a family trip not a photo shoot! I had seen many pictures when I was doing my research, but there is nothing like standing underneath a tree whose limbs are as large as the trees that grow in the forests that I am used to. The sheer height of General Grant is staggering, at a whopping 267.5 feet! It is actually taller than General Sherman, but is not as large in volume, which is why it is only the 3rd largest tree. We almost couldn’t believe it was real. It felt like a set out of Avatar or something. Naturally there are a lot of people who want to see this giant of giants, so we waited in line to get some pictures, and then continued back up the trail so we could head over to Sequoia National Park to see General Sherman.
Continue reading “RVing across the Southwest: Day 7”
31 Downing Street 