Kings Canyon National Park and My Scarf is Finished

I have to admit that I had never heard of this park until we decided to come to Sequoia NP. The two parks are, in fact, attached, with Sequoia to the south and Kings Canyon to the north. We set out to see what we could see.

 First off, I must show you this shot of the area near our campground. It is Lake Kaweah and is as pretty a spot as you can find anywhere. Sequoia NP is off in the distance.

Like Sequoia NP, one travels to Kings Canyon NP by way of a long, winding road that continues to increase in elevation. There are not as many scenic turnouts as in Sequoia but you can see over a dozen mountain peaks from these vistas. If you love roller coasters, you will love driving in this part of the country!

We entered Kings Canyon National Park and stopped at the Visitors Center, where it was confirmed that the actual canyon was still closed for the winter. However, we could visit one of the Sequoia groves that featured General Grant, the third largest tree in the world and the one that had the widest trunk.

Pretty impressive, eh? This tree is forty feet across, about the same width as the length of our motorhome. A fence prevented us from getting too close, and I did wish that there was something in the photo that would provide scale, but there it is. 

Fun facts! If the trunk of the General Grant Tree was a gas tank on a car that got 25 miles per gallon, you could drive around the earth 350 times without refueling.

This tree is so wide it would take about 20 people holding hands to make a complete circle around the base.

If this tree's trunk could be filled with sports equipment, it could hold 159,000 basketballs or more than 37 million ping pong balls.

This tree was proclaimed to be the Nation's Christmas Tree by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926, and in 1956 it was designated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to be a National Shrine, a living memorial to those who have given their lives for their country.

We headed back on a different road, that took us through a beautiful countryside. As we passed a small restaurant, out in the middle of nowhere, we spied this in the road in front of us.

This bull was lumbering along, not at all afraid of our car even when we passed it. My window was open and I could hear a woman sitting in front of the restaurant as she commented, "Oh look, she's videoing him." It sounded like the bull was a frequent visitor to the restaurant. In any rate, we had no cell service to call the police about him, so we continued on. The bull stopped at the entrance to a nearby farm, turned in, and headed for the barn, cool as could be. We got a chuckle out of watching him.

While I rode along I kept my hands busy twisting fringe on the scarf I finished weaving, and when we returned home I washed it and tossed it in the dryer on air dry for 10 minutes.  I am pleased with the way it turned out.

To the lower left you can see the back of it, which has no floats but shows subtle striping. It has a nice drape, too. Details are on my Ravelry page.

We have really enjoyed this area but it's time to move on. The plan is to stop for one night in a campground on the way to Las Vegas, to break up the trip a little. After all, we are in no rush!