In awe of the trees!

After a busy and exciting cruise, we have enjoyed a change pace this week. After a brief stay at Pyramid Lake where we enjoyed learning about the California Water Project, we enjoyed a a beautiful drive through the California Valley. For those of you that have not seen it, the valley is nestled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains and has some of the richest soil in North America. As we drove through, we marvelled at the sheer vastness and were thrilled to see all sorts of fruits and vegetables growing alongside our route. The boys were particularly excited by the apple-sized (I am not exaggerating!) strawberries that we purchased at a road side stand and managed to eat three pints all by themselves!

At the end of our 3-hour drive, we arrived at a lovely RV park near Sequoia National Park. Yesterday, we spent a very memorable day at the park and could hardly believe the size of the monarch sequoia trees. We started our journey with a visit to the Giant Forest Museum, and then took a walk around the meadow. I am not sure why we weren't expecting it after all of our other adventures in the mountains, but since we had to climb to nearly 7000 feet, we arrived to find almost 3 feet of snow on the trails. Since my mum and step-dad are visitingit was Arne's first really crazy hiking adventure since his accident and we are proud to report that he hiked the full 1 mile loop through the snow! As we continued to drive up into the groves, the developing 6-7 ft diametre Sequoias we saw enroute were amazing enough, but when we came face to face with General Sherman that stands more than 300 feet tall and has a diametre of 37 feet and a circumference of more than 100 feet, we could barely believe our eyes! It was certainly a sight that none of us will forget and made for a truly amazing day.

Today, mum, Arne, and Riley decided to have a quiet day around the campsite, but since Braedon has such an interest, Shawn and I decided to take him on a tour of the Crystal Cave at Sequoia. Like all of the other caves we have visited, the formations were truly beautiful, and we were all delighted to find that we are gradually becoming knowledgeable about the geology of a cave, the different types of formations and the factors that cause them to form. What made this tour even more exciting was the crazy drive required to get to cave entrance! To say that it was a windy road would be an understatement and combined with the 1/2 mile hike down to the cave entrance, it provided a great lead up to the tour. Although this cave has not been as protected from human interaction as Kartchner Caverns, we were pleased to find that it is very much alive and is continuing to develop. It was a very wet cave, with a base of marble rather than the limestone we have gotten used to in other caves, and as a result there were some beautiful sections covered with flowstone. Since Braedon was the youngest person on the tour, he got to enjoy some special priviledges like opening the spider web entrance and protecting the local wildlife (including one very tenacious millipede that refused to leave the walking path!).

Tomorrow, we are heading on a long drive from Sequoia to Death Valley and are looking forward to some very hot weather. Although today was beautiful with warmer temperatures and lots of sun, California has been unseasonable cool.

Tammy