camping & sequoia nat'l park

Some of my friends and family are finding it shocking that I've been camping two times in the last month but I'm quite enjoying it! And yes, we're camping in a tent and i bought myself a new sleeping bag (in fact it's called the cat's meow ;)

This past weekend I drove up with 5 other girls (two packed cars) to Sequoia National Park, about 3.5 hours North and East of LA. It was HOT inland, in the mid 90s and even hit a 100 on my car temp gauge while we were driving home. But inside the park it was a perfect 75 and sunny--ideal for hiking!

We camped about 7 miles outside of the park, Keweah Park Resort--it was right along the Kern River. It was a gorgeous campground and the river rapids were ideal for drowning out all your neighbors :) We got to our site by Noon on Saturday and set up camp and hit the park by 2pm. I didn't realize it takes about an hour to drive your way up the 7000 feet to where the paths and "sites" begin. So it was a lot of time in the car after our trek from LA. But it was SOOOO beautiful. The trees really are gigantic. And the views just picturesque...esp with the snow capped mountains. Even in June there was still snow on the ground, it was crazy that we were in shorts yet standing on snow.

After a few hours of hiking around we went back to camp to crack open some cold beers and lots of appz and pulled out some good ol' drinking games once we hit the general store to buy ourselves some cards. A few hours later we cooked up some hot dogs and smores for dessert and sat around the fire until there wasn't much beer left. I opted to be the one to "rough it" and not sleep on an air mattress, but now I see why the girls brought them along--the ground is hard. But it was all good, after all, camping is camping!

On Sunday we packed up and hit the park again. We went to Morrol Rock where we climbed 1/4 mile of stairs up another 1000 feet to see awesome views. It was a bit scary at times--the stairway paths got real narrow and if you looked over the edge you might feel a bit nervous. I kept thinking how my mom would NEVER have done that!!! I have a video here but didn't realize my thumb was over the speaker so you can't hear the sound :) but that was fun. And we also checked out the meadows and looked for bears. We saw one climbing the mountain while we were driving--a huge brown one--that that was it.

All in all it was an awesome weekend topped off with lunch overlooking the rapids of the Kern River, at the Gateway. Then back to june gloom LA--it was 68 and cloudy when we rolled back into town. But at least it wasn't 100! And the best part is, I sort of know what I'm doing now for when my Dad comes to visit. He's always wanted to go here and I just can't wait to show him!!