Purcells on Wheels

We’ve just spent the last week at a very nice little campground in Three Rivers, California, just outside Sequoia National Park.  It was next to a small river, so we had really nice water sounds, it was great.  We probably would have stayed there another week, but they had no laundry room.  They also only had wifi at the office, not at the sites.  The owners are planning to add this stuff, but that didn’t do us any good.  Our air card didn’t work here, so we were stuck.  We tried going up to the office a few times to get access, but the connection was too slow to bother with.

The park was absolutely gorgeous, we had a really good time every time we went.  The road was very twisty, so I had to drive most of the time so I wouldn’t get nauseous.  The sequoias are amazing.  We went on a couple of different hikes and saw lots of things, trees, deer, tons of birds, and a very bold coyote who was hanging out at a parking lot looking for food.   He made me a little wary, so I put the kids in the car while I took his picture.  He didn’t act weird, just not afraid.  The kids had a blast playing in the snow one day.  On our last hike, Caitlin found a pool full of big, bright orange salamanders.  It was really neat.  I wouldn’t have seen them without her, guess she has the advantage of being closer to the ground.

The park owner told us about a road we could take to see wildflowers, so we did that one day.  It was great.  We kept going a little farther and a little farther, and ended up in Kings Canyon Nat’l Park, which is next door to Sequoia NP.  Since we were there, we had to go see the General Grant tree.  It was still pretty snowy up there, so we were the stupid tourists in our shorts in the snow.  We also had Sophie with us, since we weren’t planning to go to a park.  Dogs aren’t allowed on any of the trails there, but they can be in the parking lot.  So that’s how Sophie got her picture next to a sequoia too.

Since we keep going to prettier and prettier places, I keep taking more and more pictures.  I’m almost hopelessly behind in editing and posting them.  Now we are staying near Yosemite National Park, so my problem won’t be getting any better.   I’ll have to upload the pics that go with this post in the next day or two.