And I am back with more epic ninja sock monkey-ness! Totally ignore the fact that this is for June 6th and I am so behind. Enough dawdling. Forwards and onwards with the adventures!
We all got up as soon as it got bright (or for me, as soon as my mom woke me up) and ate breakfast outside, which was nice, but kinda cold in the morning. Note: Bring jackets. After breakfast, I stopped by the visitor center and got a Junior Ranger booklet and while my parents got trail advice, I filled out the booklet. I'll include some educational stuff later. Anyway. After filling the booklet out, I returned it to the desk and got sworn in as an official Kings Canyon Junior Ranger. The ranger was super nice and let me where his hat while he proclaimed to the entire vicinity that I was officially a Junior Ranger. It was fun. After that, we hiked up the North Grove Trail (its a loop) and basically saw lots of sequoias and squirrels and the like. See below for pictures.
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| Trees. |
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| Feel so short now... |
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| Nature at its best. |
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| Dogwood flower bath. |
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| The hiiilllls are aliiiive with the sound of sock monkeeeeeysss!!! |
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| Fun facts... |
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| ...statistics... |
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| ...now put it all together. |
After the hike, we still had lots of time so we decided to take a scenic drive around. See below for map.
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| Drive to highlighted route. |
We drove, admiring the scenery, before stopping, once at Boyden Cave, once at Grizzly Falls. See below for pics of amazingness.
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| Peek-a-boo! |
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| The South Fork Kings River. |
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| Sock at Grizzly Falls... |
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| ...Spock at Grizzly Falls. |
The drive took roughly 3-4 hrs. We drove back and went to go eat dinner at the (only) restaurant that they had in that part of Kings Canyon, but we were about 45 minutes early and the cashier told us that the restaurant didn't open till 5 so we went to the lodge and did some electronic gadget-y stuff. When 5 o'clock struck, we headed back to the restaurant to have dinner. The food was really good. I suggest this place if you stop by John Muir Lodge or its vicinity. After that we headed back to the lodge where it rained sugar pine cones. Let me get this straight first. Sugar Pine-cones are usually around 13 inches long. And when it got windy, these cones started dropping off the trees. I have to admit, it was rather entertaining to watch. See below for pictures.
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| Pine cones... |
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| ...and pine cones... |
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| ...and pine cones. |
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| Sock Monkey and Spock on, you guessed it, more pine cones. |
After the sugar pine cone rain of terror (just kidding) we took an astronomy tour that had a grand total of three people. Four if you include the guide. Four people. The guide, my mom, my dad, and I. And maybe Bigfoot. Just kidding. I think... The tour was nice and at night you could see Bakersfield from the spot where we were (called Panorama Point). And Bakersfield is, like, 93.9 mi (151.2 km) from Kings Canyon. So it was cool. And really awesome. That just about sums up Day 8 of 10 in our vacation to California and the sorts. If you have anything to ask, comment about, talk about, etc, use the comment board. Well, I think I'm just about done so thanks for reading!
Sorry. Forgot about the educational stuff, Here you go!
Tree Scramble
Unscramble the letters at the end of each sentence to form a word in the blanks. All words relate to trees.
1. Several kinds of _ _ _ _ trees grow in the mid-Sierra zone. (nipe)
2. The _ _ _ _ _ of a tree anchor it in the ground. (sorot)
3. All trees need sunlight and _ _ _ _ _ to grow. (rawet)
4. A giant sequoia cone can hold over 200 tiny _ _ _ _ _. (edses)
5. The giant sequoia tree has a _ _ _ _ the size of a chicken's egg. (noce)
6. Bears, woodpeckers, and other animals like to eat the _ _ _ _ _ _ from the oak trees. (nacors)
7. The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is the largest kind of tree on earth. (tagin aqesiuo)
8. The _ _ _ _ of a giant sequoia tree is very thick and helps protect it from fire. (krab)
9. Some trees grow in all three _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in the parks. (feil nozes)
10. Pine trees have skinny leaves called _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Now, write the letters in the highlighted boxes in order to fill in the blank with a word:
Sometimes rangers start a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ fire to keep the forest healthy.
(*Borrowed/Adapted from the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Junior Ranger Booklet*)
It was fun to see the World Third largest tree - Grant Tree. I miss my hiking stick, but I did hide it very well, hopefully I will find it and use it again when I go back again. Are you going to tell the "hiking Stick" story? I love the weather, up 60 F and low 40F.
ReplyDeleteLove the cool air and birds singing in the morning. I still miss my hiking stick.... thank you for hiking with me at North Grove loop trail
ReplyDeleteOMG my mom LOVE waterfall !
ReplyDeletep.s.I can hear your sock monkey!