Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, By Way of Vegas and Bakersfield

May 8, Day 8 – “Hey Baby Let’s Go to Vegas!”  Well, the RV Park at Circus, Circus is nothing to write home about.  If you ever go there, just understand there aren’t good directions on finding the RV park. Drive around the block and look for a sign by a parking garage.  It’s a paved parking lot.  But, we did have a great time!  Whatever Ron and I lost, I ended up winning back plus enough to pay for our dinner, which is a good deal for me!

Full moon over Vegas

May 9, Day 9 – Our destination today is Bakersfield, California, the home of Buck Owens and Bakerbilly! We stayed outside of town at Orange Grove RV Park, which was nice and quiet.  Did laundry and cleaned house. Then we headed to town.  Needed to do a little shopping.  Decided to eat dinner at Buck Owen’s Crystal Palace. Very good meal and enjoyed listening to the band and learning a little history.

Buck Owens in his museum.

Uh oh....Greg found him somebody!

The car behind the bar

Look at all the jet trails in the sky!

The full moon and KUZZ radio.

May 10, Day 10 – Our destination today is Kings Canyon National Park, Azalea campground.  After getting camp set up, we went to the Visitor’s Center and got our passports stamped and took in the film which was really good.  We then took a walk around the General Grant Grove.  A lot of big trees here!  The General Grant Tree is one of the world’s largest trees. 

Kinda gives you an idea of the size.

The Grant Tree fire scar.

The Gamlin Cabin, which later in life became the first quarters of the park ranger.

Good history on the cabin.

Can you see the stump?

May 11, Day 11 – One of those great, lazy mornings. After a big breakfast we took off touring Kings Canyon National Park.  The rivers and waterfalls are amazing!!!!!  The snow melt is really good this year.  Wildflowers are blooming!  All the side roads are still closed, but the main road into the canyon is open.

Lots of snow covered peaks!

Lots of wildflowers

Major river currents with the record snow fall.

Ten Mile Creek

A great year for wildflowers.

Waterfalls are around every corner.

The King's River

No whitewater rafting!

You can't get too close to these falls.  So much mist, cold and noise!

Roaring River Falls

The falls are deafening!

The end of the road!

Panning for gold!

In the afternoon we drove to the Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park.  This is a BIG tree.  The biggest tree circumference in the world.  It is a really good trail to walk on to the tree, but going down was the easiest part.  Just saying……

 

Donna and Greg standing in our first snowbank. I am sure there will be so many more!

This is the "footprint" of the world's largest tree (diameter) on earth. The top is dead so the volume keeps increasing. The girth is 109'.

Trees on the Sherman Tree Trail.

Donna and I are making good use of our Instant Pots.  The generator runs them well.  Enjoyed an awesome campfire and really good Instant Pot lasagna.

 Next up…..Yosemite.