Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Kings Canyon NP

My daily fix from other DIY and home improvement blogs comes via houseblogs.net. It's been down for several days, so I've been in mild withdrawal. Thanks to This D*mn House and some others, I haven't been completely starved. So in solidarity with houseblogs.net's problems, I won't be posting about home improvement.

Actually, Katarina and I spent 4 days camping in Kings Canyon National Park, so I don't have much in the way of home improvement or DIY insanity to blog about. Since then I've been doing more mundane things like unloading the car and cleaning the camping gear, procrastinating about doing laundry, and starting to get the house ready for the rainy season by doing things like blowing the accumulated pine needles off the roof.

We had a great time. While I've been to a bunch of different national parks in California and beyond, we'd never been to Kings Canyon NP and the adjacent Sequoia NP. Neither some smoke from (lightning-caused) fires nor a terribly loud generator on the last night dampened our spirits. Kings Canyon is gorgeous, and spending time in nature, sleeping under the stars, and being away from work, phones, email, et al, is always refreshing. So I present you with some of the images I took, along with one Katarina took of me taking them.






7 comments:

NV said...

Awesome shots, Gene. (And thanks for the nod, BTW.)

They remind me a little of some I took at Rocky Mountain NP in Colorado a lifetime ago. Beautiful scenery.

A. Wise said...

I like the pic of the grass!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the kind words. The 'grass' is a bunch of reeds near the edge of Zumwalt Meadow, which is where all these pics were taken. That's one of the prettiest, easiest hikes around, with beauty all around you every step of the way.

I'd love to get back to Rocky Mountain NP. And Zion, and Bryce, and Yellowstone, and Capitol Reef, and... and all the national parks I haven't been to yet, too.

Sandy said...

Beautiful photographs!

Liz said...

What a beautiful place for a camping trip!

casacaudill said...

we'll probably go to king's canyon next year - where do you camp?

Unknown said...

We spent one night in the Grant Grove area, I think at the Azalea campground. Lovely area under the trees, higher up. We hiked to the General Grant tree from our campground.

We spent the remaining nights in the Cedar Grove area, which is down in Kings Canyon itself. We stayed in the Canyon View campground, next to a little meadow, and a short stroll from the Kings River.

If you go, I highly recommend the Zumwalt Meadow hike. Easy hike but incredibly beautiful.