Trip to Sequoia National Park

Since we are spending a good chunk of time in California for our visit - I asked mom and dad if we could head up to the area where we used to camp every year growing up.  Lake Kaweah is just outside Sequoia National Park so we were able to do a full day in there.  One of the places I really wanted to go was the Kaweah river which feeds into the lake.  I have so many good memories of playing in that rocky, clear river.  Apparently those were in years that the Sierra Nevadas did not get a lot of rain.  This year the river (at least where we usually played) looked more like a lake.

 Here's what we got...

Here's what I had expected...We played in it for awhile anyway - it wasn't near the fun I had hoped for - but Timmy thought it was very cool to swim in a river anyway!

We spent the entire day on Monday in Sequoia.  We found this cool little bridge overlooking the Kaweah river on our way in and had to stop and look/take a picture.

If you've ever traveled with me, you know I don't like heights, at all.  Add that to one lane highways in the park with construction being done and the ride was about all I could handle.  Note to self:  sedation might be necessary when traveling in the mountains.

We spent a couple hours hiking the trails around General Sherman (the worlds tallest tree).  Ben was in his element.  Hiking + Mountains = Very Very Happy (and freakishly energetic) Ben.  We had to cut him off eventually, the hike back to the car was long :)

General Sherman Tree

These two kept swapping sunglasses throughout the hike

Little Coop big old tree

We loved this waterfall, it was little but pretty 

Cooper loved touching the trees and kept trying to touch or grab anything within reach.  He was cute pointing at things and growling or saying "dat"

On our way back down the mountain, I really wanted to try to find a spot on the river like what I remembered.  We finally found a spot - it took about a 1/2 mile hike...but it was totally worth it.

Since the water was so high, there was no way we could swim in it (okay if we were willing to risk our lives we could have...)  But we put our feet in and found a little area out of the current for the kids to safely get wet in.  Coop stayed on Ben's back the whole time...way too dangerous to let him down!

 This was our climb up from the river :)

We made it!

This morning we headed out with the plan to go to Lake Kaweah and decided over breakfast to check one more spot on the river.  Alas we found a little spot where we could play.  This one was like I remembered too, only again the water was way high...so we needed to be careful.  The kids had fun playing in it and the sandy beach was a hit.

 Coop snuggled up to Gram a lot

Now we're back in LA where it was 104 (or at least that's what the car said).  Gotta say 104 in LA feels like about 80 in Illinois these days - no complaints!