When we entered Sequoia, we just happened to get to the visitor's center when they were having a talk about bears. It's a pretty good thing we didn't stay here last night, because our food-stinky car would have been torn apart like an aluminum can. They strongly recommend that you remove ALL food, and anything remotely smelly from your car, including window cleaner, WD-40, and candles if you just PARK your car for more than 30 minutes for a hike. The bears are active day and night, and some are not afraid of people. They've got these bear-proof storage lockers where you have to put food and such if you're going to camp. Having arrived after dark, I don't think we'd've paid much attention to those guidelines. They say the bears can smell food up to five miles away depending on the wind, and let me tell you, after three weeks of driving, our car probably smells like a bright flashing beacon to them!

It's hard to explain how big these trees are. I could tell you that this one is over 300 feet high, and that one is over 130 feet in circumference, or that some are over 3,000 years old. But, until you see the sheer girth of these things completely dwarfing the other trees nearby, you'll never truly appreciate it. Getting close to them to get a perspective shot, you have to actually climb over the roots. We had trouble getting a whole tree in one picture, so most of my shots are just trunks! They have a tree you can drive under, but I think the one everybody takes pictures of is at Yosemite somewhere. We went for a long trail walk to see the world's largest living thing, the giant Sequoia named, "General Sherman." Keep in mind when looking at that picture that the fence I'm leaning up against is already about 20 to 30 feet away from the tree.

Stream behind our cabin	Ranger Natasha gives us the "Bear Facts"	Just watching	Overlooking Moro Rock
Getting the shot	Incredibly windey road	Entering the land of giants...	This is a SMALL one
"How many houses can we build out of this one?"	In the shadow of something big	Infested with children	Cathedral
Driving through a tree	Burn Marks	Matt climbs a mountain to reach Marnie	That is one BIG tree...
Survived a couple fires	The're really just cardboard cutouts...	World's Biggest Tree	The TINY one is the Sequoia cone
Dragonfly

The roads up the mountains into the parks were incredibly steep and windey, and most of them had no guardrails. You look over one shoulder, and all you see is a rock cliff wall going straight up, shadowing the car and road, boulders balanced on the verge of crushing you. Over the other side, all you see is sky, clouds, and the tops of giant redwood trees. All there is in between is a thin strip of pavement with an incredible view. We only had two hours to spend in Yosemite before it got too dark. But we really got there at a great time, because the setting sun cast incredible colors on the cliff walls, and created a huge rainbow at the base of one of the waterfalls. We went for a short hike up the stream to the base of that fall to get a better look. You could easily spend a week or two here and never fully appreciate all the secret nooks and sights. We instantly agreed that we have to come back here one day, and spend more time. Just walking through the field on the way to get a better shot of the sun hitting the mountain peak, I walked right past a whole group of deer laying low in the tall grass. One stood up and took me by surprise. It was then that I realized that all those tree branches sticking up from the grass were antlers! It was getting dark, and difficult to take a handheld shot with the camera, but one of them came out alright. I wish you could see the whole scene though - the tall yellow grass waving in the breeze, the deer sitting low in the field, surrounded by a clearing in the pine and redwood trees, deep in the shadow of these massive mountain peaks, with a red, purple, and deep blue backdrop as the sun was setting. Yeah... two hours was not enough... we're definitely coming back.

Yosemite Skyline	El Capitan	Silhouette of trees	Clouds following the slopes
You could base-jump off THAT one	Waterfall	Rainbow	Closeup
Moon	Downstream	This car's been everywhere!	In the valley
Looking out over the bridge	Blue Mountains	Peacefull spot	Deer in the grass
Sunlit peak	"Into the trees..."	Moon	Sunset in the valley
Midnight sky over Yosemite