King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

After driving through vast orange (first picture) and peach groves, we were surprised to come across Bear Mountain Pizza (next two pictures)--a fun little restaurant that in Squaw Valley, CA where we ate the Giant Grizzley Pizza. Then, we did two big parks in one day when we hit both King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The Giant Sequoias were spectacular in both parks.

However, the most outstanding part of our day came late in the afternoon when we were hiking to a waterfall in Sequoia. We were getting very close to the waterfall on the trail when Holly, who was in the lead, told us to STOP! About 10 yards from us, on the right, was a black bear! You have to look carefully in the pictures, but you can see that bear very clearly.

Now, in all honesty, we all talk about how fun it would be to see a bear on one of these hikes...until you actually SEE A BEAR!!! At that point, you want to run very fast away from the bear, but that is a bad strategy. I am glad to say that we have good pictures and good health after our Bear Encounter of a Very Close Kind!

Notables about Giant Sequoias:
* Individual giant sequoias have been known to live 3,200 years. It is estimated that only 1 out of a million sequoia seeds actually germinates.
* Their roots spread out about 150 feet from the tree, but they only go 3-6 feet deep.
* The General Sherman Tree at the bottom of the pictures is the tree with the largest volume in the world! Its diameter measures 36.5 feet and its annual growth would be the equivalent amount of wood as the volume of an entire large tree. It is estimated that General Sherman is about 2,200 years old.