Fall Break - Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Pinnacles and Lassen

 Fall Break was a wonderful dash to four National Parks - Kings Canyon/Sequoia, Pinnacles and Lassen Volcanic.  We had been to all of these places before, but wanted to see some parts we hadn't seen or wanted to see again this time.  We had been to and seen pretty much all of Sequoia before.  Kings Canyon we had barely seen any of.  We had been to the west side of Pinnacles when it was actually closed and we had never been to the north side of Lassen because the road had always been closed due to snow.  It was a wonderful, quick trip.  

We left on Thursday morning and arrived at Sequoia late afternoon. We came in at the south entrance - Foothills Visitor's Center. We had time to enjoy several stops and almost the whole Generals Highway drive that day. We saw Tunnel Rock, Hospital Rock, the Big Trees Trail and General Sherman Tree which we hiked to in a small rainstorm.  We couldn't hike to Moro Rock because it completely shrouded in rain clouds.  We stayed at the John Muir Lodge in Kings Canyon/Grant Grove Village that night.  I was quite disappointed in the lodge.  It wasn't very much of a lodge and certainly not a very quaint lodge type room.  But it was very expensive and inside the park. Being in the park made it easy to access the area early in the morning before the crowds arrived.  Overall, it wasn't really very crowded anyway.  

On Friday we went early to see the General Grant Tree and it was a great hike among the giant trees.  Then we drove the rest of the Generals Highway and then the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway road.  We stopped at many overlooks along the way.  The forest and canyon were beautiful where fire hadn't burned them up.  We stopped by and hiked to Roaring River Falls which was beautiful.  On the way back we stopped off at Knapps Cabin, Grizzly Falls and went on a tour of Boyden Cave.  They were all really great.  Unfortunately Crystal Cave in Sequoia was closed for some work.  Another time!  Then we headed on to the illusive town of Firebaugh for the night.  Google took us to the town, but our hotel was actually another 20 or so miles away.  It was still the "city of Firebaugh", but no where near it with nothing of the city in between.  Crazy and quite frustrating.  It was a good room though, thank goodness.  We were ready for it!  

We got up early Saturday morning to drive to Pinnacles.  It has very limited parking and we did find a spot because we got there early.  It was cold, but warmed up nicely while we were there.  Our main thing to see there was to hike the Balconies Cave Trail to the Talus Cave.  It was a nice hike up to it and through it.  Really interesting.  We also saw lots of work by the CCC at the Bear Gulch Resevoir.  We saw the amazing Pinnacles formations all around as well.  Then it was time to head to Red Bluff for the night.  It was the longest drive to the next destination of the trip.  We made it in time for dinner and a hotel that was good, but too close to the Freeway unfortunately.  We did some shopping for our next day's Sunday dinner that we would cook ourselves.  It was a nice enough town and the church was close to our motel and the ward was nice the next morning.  

Sunday after attending 9 am sacrament meeting we drove on to Lassen Volcanic NP.  It was a couple of hours.  We got there early enough to enjoy most of the day there.  We finally made it to some of the geothermal features of the park on the north side and also the Visitor's Center there.  We saw Sulpher Springs and then hiked the 3 miles to Bumpass Hell hot pots and steam vents.  It was a beautiful and sometimes steep hike and the hot stuff was really interesting.  We drove the Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway and stopped off at lots of overlooks.  We ate our picnic snack at Helen Lake at the base of Mt. Lassen.  We hiked the 3 steep miles to King Creek Falls and Cascades.  It was worth the hike.  We had downloaded the park narration for the highway and enjoyed learning about the many things along the way and stopped to see them.  Then it was on to Sparks, Nevada for the night.  This turned out to be a great extended stay hotel.  It had a kitchen with a big microwave, full sized fridge/freezer and a countertop stove.  It worked out to be the perfect place to cook our microwave Sunday dinners!  It was in a nice location with a beautiful park loop walk around a lake for in the morning.  It was certainly a case of saving the best for last and it was the cheapest place we stayed as well!  

Monday we hit the road and drove the long trip home on the backroads of Nevada.  We didn't stop except for gas and pit stops.  We had a great book we were listening to that kept us awake.  The road wasn't crowded like the freeways, so it was nice.  We got home in time for dinner.  We drove around 2,000 miles and it was worth the trip!  We have pretty much seen all of the western national parks now, so next trip we may be starting on some in the Midwest.