UEA...time for a visit to some amazing places

While in recovery from some illness, swine flu or otherwise, UEA school break gave us a chance for a long hoped for visit to Yosemite. Since the east entrance at Tioga Pass was closed for snow on the day we wanted to use it, we decided to take a southern route and come up through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National National Parks & Sequoia National Forest/Giant Sequoia National Monument. We left Thursday am plied with Tylenol and Dayquil. We arrived Sequoia Foothills Visitors Center entrance and drove to the Potwisha campground for our first night. It was perfect weather, about 67 and we had a great night there. Next morning we headed out to see the sights after breakfasting in camp. We saw some really cool things including Auto Log, Tunnel Log, Cresdent Meadow, Moro Rock, Tharp's Log and the Big Trees Trail. We also visited the General Sherman's Tree - the world's largest tree. While we were there we also ran into a little black bear. We lunched on the back of the car while waiting for a road stop for a controlled burn. We loved and were truly amazed by the REALLY BIG Sequoia trees and all the other amazing scenery. It was extra pretty because of the fall foliage too. It wasn't crowded at all. We then headed off for King's Canyon where we visited General Grant Tree, one of the world's largest living trees. It was also declared the Nation's Christmas Tree by President Coolidge in 1926. On a little hike we also saw the Fallen Monarch, the Gamlin Cabin and the Centennial Stump. Then we drove the road all the way to the end of Kings Canyon and visited Roaring River Falls with many photo stops in route. We headed into Fresno for the night. Saturday am we headed off to Yosemite entering at the the Wawona Rd/Hwy. 41 entrance and headed off to one of the best views in the park - Glacier Point. From it you can see 4 huge waterfalls, Half Dome, Sentinal Rock, El Capitan, the whole Yosemite Valley, etc. Truly amazing vistas. Then we headed into the valley and did the hikes to Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Falls, Mirror Lake and further also seeing many beautiful stone bridges and the beautiful river. It was just about dark when we got done with our hikes, so we headed out of the Park via El Portal road via Hwy. 141 and spent the night in Merced. We did our Sunday food shopping that night. Next morning we enjoyed a really good sacrament meeting and then headed back to Yosemite. We really enjoyed the trip there through the beautiful Merced Valley canyon and stopped for a picnic lunch along the way. In the park we walked through the Ahwahnee Hotel and then took the road out of the park via Tiaoga Pass which had opened back up. We had many stops en route to enjoy more amazing vistas. We stopped for quite a while at Olmstead Point where you could see back into the park and see the back side of Half Dome. It is truly a commanding feature of the whole park. We saw climbers on the way out too. Just as we were leaving the park, it started to snow again. We got out in the nick of time and were so glad that we got to see that part of the park before it closed up again. We found a nice campground several miles outside Bishop and ate picnic dinner and spent one of the windiest nights camping that we ever have. It was a really nice spot, but we nearly blew away. It was just windy, but not really very cold. We breakfasted in Bishop and visited the so cool Erick Schat's Bakkery there. It is one bakery that everyone should visit. We bought our lunch there (Mulekick sandwiches)and put it in the ice chest and headed on to the Extraterrestrial Hwy. and home. We didn't see any UFOs, but did see a lot of desert. We got back home in time for dinner Monday evening and were ready for our own bed and some rest from a fabulous, beautiful trip!