Saturday morning I woke up a 6 AM so that I could maximize my only full day in Sequoia National Park. I was on the road by seven, expecting it to take me two hours to drive into the park. But after 20 minutes I was at the entrance to the park, and the ranger was not ready to collect money yet. She told me to pay on the way out. So I drove in and parked at the ranger station to buy my tickets for a tour of Crystal Caves. Yes, I was there to see the giant sequoias, but I never miss out on a chance to see another cave. Again, I was early and the station did not open until eight. Once it opened, I bought my ticket for the first tour a 10. They said it would take one hour to drive to the cave which was located at the end of a narrow, windy road. I arrived at the cave around 9:15 and soon they let our group make the 10 minute walk to the entrance. What made this tour more interesting is that last year a fire burned the power lines, so the cave had no lights. We were all given a flashlight, but I used my LED head lamp, which was not a bright as the flashlights, but good enough.
The cave tour lasted about 45 minutes, and there were only a few places I really had to duck to not hit my head. I tried to make my way to the front of the group so that I was not stuck behind any slow people. I did take many photos, but less than half turned out worth keeping. You know its funny how they tell you not to touch anything in the cave, and the man in front of me kept touching the cave formations. Great example for his kids. Anyways, the tour was worth the time.
My next stop was the Giant Forest Museum. From this location you could walk to or take a shuttle to many of the famous sequoias. Because it was bear country, they had signs saying to put all your food in bear lockers, which I did. It looked as if most people did not. From the museum I decided to hike to General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. The map I had was not meant to be used for hiking, which I soon found out. The trail started out pretty clear, but I soon lost my way. I was never really lost, since I could see the road at all times. Finally I came across a woman laying on a bench smoking a cigarette, which is always nice. She said her family left her behind because she couldn't hike any more. I wonder why? She pointed the direction for the General Sherman tree and I was soon there. Lots of people standing around looking at a big tree. There were some other famous named trees in the area which I saw and took photos of.
I decided to take the shuttle back, but somehow got on the wrong one. So I got off two stops later and waited for the south-bound shuttle, which ended up being the same shuttle! Once I got back to my car I drove around some more, walked around a nice meadow surrounded by trees, bought a tee-shirt and some beer and ice and then headed toward my lodge, the Wuksachi Lodge.
The lodge consisted of a main building and the rooms were located in three detached buildings within walking or driving distance. My room was really nice and had a great view. I ate at the lodge restaurant for dinner and treated myself to a nice dinner complete with a ice-cream Sunday.
The main lodge had wireless Internet access, so I brought my laptop there to upload my photos for the day. There were four to six deer outside the window grazing in the forest. I saw many deer on this trip, but no bears or other wildlife other than squirrels and birds.
I turned in early so I had plenty of sleep for the next day's adventure: finish Sequoia, see Kings Canyon and drive to Yosemite.
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