Days 17-18--June 19th-20th--Sequoia National Park to Desert Palms, CA

We enjoyed our stay in Madera.  Our hotel suite was SO comfortable!  We left on time and headed for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park.  There weren't as many people here as there was in Yosemite.  So, our ride was much more relaxing.  As we drove through CA, we noticed how dry everything was.  The only places that were green were the orchards and fields that were irrigated.  As we began our ascent up the mountain to Kings Mountain and Sequoia National Park we looked back and this is what we saw.

Notice how dry the mountains look in the background.  The valley was all irrigated.  These are different types of orchards that you see in the picture.

The Sequoias in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park were unbelievable.  I've seen them in pictures, but there's no way to really understand how big they are until you stand beside one and try to look up at it.  I had to take four shots of the tree to get the whole thing!  Something else astonishing was HOW MANY there were of them.  Can you imagine how old these trees are?

There are lots more pictures in our album.  Check them out.  The one to the left was a trunk of a tree that had fallen many years ago.  I could walk all the way through it.

 Our descent down was....well, let me say, I was very thankful when we got back out to the long stretch of road that took us toward Palm Desert.  The picture below tells a little about it. There were MANY of these, not to mention the 'snakes'.  So it was down and around, and down and around..............

 Paul said this was this rest area on the way down.  lol!  There was road construction EVERYWHERE,

even on the mountain.

Two things we saw reminded us of home!  Believe it or not, the dogwoods are just blooming up on the mountains. 

The other thing was "Bear Grass".  We saw many of these as well.

We had such a good time looking at all these beautiful things that God created.  We're so thankful He's allowed us to see these things in 'real life' and not just in pictures.  (The tree below isn't even the biggest tree here.)

We're now in our resort in Desert Palms.  Another beautiful place.  Today is a rest today.  Tomorrow we get to walk on the beach!  The Pacific Ocean beach!  Woo Hoo!