Kings Canyon National Park

Kings Canyon is located south of Yosemite.  Here we are at the entrance into the canyon portion of the park.

Entering the park from the west (driving east from Fresno), you first enter what I'll call the "tree portion" of the park, it's where there are the Giant Sequoia groves. Driving east, one actually enters the Sequoia National Forest to get to the main portion of Kings Canyon, which is the area between those two ridges.

As one drives east, one gets to an overlook where you can see where the two forks of the Kings River meet.  You can see the road entering Kings Canyon there on the right.

Rounding the corner into Kings Canyon.  At first I was unimpressed because I was expecting a view as spectacular as Yosemite. But I soon was able to let go of comparison and appreciate Kings Canyon for what it is.

Looking east into Kings Canyon, with the South Fork of the Kings River leading the way.

Onions put it best..."the river looks angry"

It was more than five continuous miles of raging water.  I just tried to imagine what it would be like to raft this river....

And then the trees appeared again the the canyon opened up and we could see the high Sierra to the east.

Looking at the east "end" of Kings Canyon.

Here, at the eastern end, around "Road's End" where the road literally ends, it looks a bit like Yosemite.  I have to stop trying to make comparisons.....

Zumwalt Meadow.

Roaring River Falls

So much mist.  A great place to take a nap, which is exactly what I did right there on the rocks along the river.

Heading back out west through the canyon, we drove back through the tree portion of Kings Canyon National Park.

The General Grant Tree, the third largest tree by volume of wood in the world.  Turns out Giant Sequoias grow only in a small zone here on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada's between 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

Last stop of the day, Panoramic Point. 

Sierra Vista Scenic Byway

Memorial Day Weekend 2017!  Road trip!  First stop, In-N-Out burger (Onions new favorite, although he goes regular burger no onions).  Here's my attempt at eating healthy.  Protein style burger, no friends, a hard-boiled egg, blueberries and water.  The last three brought from home.

Having seen Yosemite last year, we decided to head back to the Sierra Nevada's and go south of Yosemite to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.  However, on the first day, we drove up into the mountains between Yosemite and Kings Canyon.  We drove up the Sierra Vista Scenic Byway starting in the town of North Fork, the geographic center of California.

The first part of the drive up into the mountains is nothing special, but you round a corner and the Sierra's are laid out all in front of you.  The first thing we see is Mammoth Lake and dam.

Mile High Vista is spectacular and as you see, we had fantastic weather.

Looking east into the Sierra Nevada, there are also lots of granite domes.  None as famous as Half Dome, but still, amazing.

Flowers EVERYWHERE.  White, red, yellow, orange....

The Sierra Vista Scenic Byway is a loop and we just kept driving up into the mountains. 

However, near the top, there was snow, so we turned around.  In addition, part of the road is unpaved.  Alas, we apparently missed out on two amazing sites along the drive.  Next time....

Graffiti

So, the main building (from the 1950's) of The Lick-Wilmerding High School will be torn down this summer and replaced with a new building during the next academic year.  Therefore, on the last day of school, students were given the go-ahead to write on the walls of the school.  Alumni even came back to take part.  I didn't really look closely at what was written but there was some offensive stuff.  I mean, of course, it's high school kids, and some, if not all, have some beef with some teacher, someone or something that happened to them. But I took the time yesterday to do a quick scan and here are some of my favorites.

Awww, thanks kid!

LWHS Math Department 2017-18.  We are losing Ms. Lea (front row left) to her new life adventure!  We'll miss her.

Tennessee Valley

This past Thursday, I met up with Nick to grab some dinner in the Castro and to hear the president of KQED in conversation with Bill Moyers.

I knew of Moyers name but it took Wikipedia to give me the full scoop on his life (press secretary for LBJ in his mid-20's).  He spoke about the power and importance of public radio....especially in our current political climate!

Onions usually works on Saturday's but got this past Saturday off.  We went to the farmer's market, checked out the fish store on Clement and then went across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Tennessee Valley.

It's a flat walk from the parking lot down to the ocean.

We stayed at the beach for about 45 minutes (that's Onions limit!) and then walked back up the valley to spend the evening at the Korean spa we like to go to!