Our visit to Sequoia National Park

This past Saturday we took a trip to Sequoia National Park. It just happened to be Earth Day and the last free entry weekend for National Park week. We decided to go early and beat the crowds. It kind of worked.

We are currently staying in Visalia, California and we drove into the park from Hwy 198. Once we hit the Three Rivers area it was a very scenic drive. We pulled over to get a quick picture. It really doesn't do the area justice! Hopefully we can go back before we leave next weekend.

Lake Kaweah in Three Rivers, CA

Once we arrived at the park we had to do our usual picture with the National Park sign and this time we actually had my "real" tripod. If you don't know what I am talking about you can read about it here. lol

We decided to try a new pose with the sign this time.

What do you think?

A short walk from the sign we found this beautiful view.

Some wildflowers and Mount Eisen peeking through the back

We made a quick stop at the Foothills Visitor Center to get a stamp in our National Park Passport and then continued the drive down Generals Highway.  It is a winding two lane road with lots of switch backs especially once you pass Hospital Rock. Not for the faint of heart or those who get car sick.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks and took some pictures.

View from the Eleven Range Overlook

Moro Rock

Chris working on his modeling career

Castle Rocks- on the left, not sure the one on the right

Then as soon as we saw the large sequoias we decided it was time to get out and walk around. The air was so fresh and smelled like pine.

It's so peaceful

We were going to head over to the Giant Forest Museum and then do the Big Trees Trail next but the park was getting more and more crowded so we decided it was time to make our way to the Sherman Tree Trail.

I tried to look up the park temperatures before we got there but they must have been for deeper into the park. It showed a high of 40. It was not 40. We were pretty hot in our winter clothes.

This part of the park still had some snow on the ground

The trail was just a short.4 mile hike on a paved road but it was steep on the way back and the high elevation made it a little more difficult.

Our first glimpse of General Sherman

There was a short line to get a picture but it moved fast. Everyone in line took turns helping to take pictures for each other.

Chris and I with the 2,200 year old tree which is also the largest tree (by volume) on our planet.

It was pretty amazing. Here are some other pictures we took on our hike back to the car.

I decided Chris's hair was sequoia red

Lots of mossy trees

 

Someone made this little snowman in some of the snow in the parking lot. I found it amusing.

By this point we knew we had to get back home to our pups. It was a long drive. We would love to go back sometime and stay there.

Have you been? If so what are some of your favorite hikes or things to do?

RV Park Review- Saddle Mountain RV Park- Tonopah, AZ

Saddle Mountain RV Park

Check- in Date: 03/12/17
Check-out Date: 04/08/17

Type of Accommodation: Deluxe (more spacious than standard spot) Back-in

Price: $380 + Electric (ours ended up being $115)= $495 for the month

Amenities: Swimming pool, exercise facility, library, basketball courts, tennis courts, pool tables, ping pong tables and more. They also had a "free table" where you can put items you no longer want and take items others have given away. We purged a lot of items on that table.

Wifi/Cell Reception: The cell reception was great. The only FREE wifi in this park is in the clubhouse area. We paid an extra $50 for wifi coverage and it was excellent for streaming!

Favorite places to go/eat in the area:

It' s about a 35 minute drive to any grocery stores, shops or restaurants. Most of these are in neighboring cities.

• Oregano's- amazing salads, deep dish pizza, margaritas and desert.
• Saddle Mountain Brewing Company- Great beers and Chris LOVED their fish and chips.
• Skyline Regional Park- free park with beautiful desert views, picnic areas and lots of hiking trails.
• Desert Diamond Casino- I enjoyed the slots machines, there is NO alcohol on the premises and no table games.  
• The Goodyear Farmers Market
• The Apache Trail and hiking South Mountain in Phoenix, AZ
• Haus Murphy's- delicious german food and beer.

Here is our blog post with more in depth information on these items and more.

Recommended: After a month here were are surprised by our answer...Yes! If you can handle the occasional chicken coop smell and flies.

**WARNING** This RV Park is near Hickman's Egg Farm. It smells ok most of the time but there were certain times of day when the smell hits hard and it smells like you are in a chicken coop. It's pretty bad! There are also lots of flies which was pretty annoying. They kept getting in our rig. The RV Park doesn't allow cancellations so if you get there and can't handle the smell you don't get your money back.

Sign across from the post office

Our trip to Carlsbad Caverns

This past Saturday Chris and I took a trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park with our full-time RVer friends Rockin' The Road with Mike and Kat.

When we first arrived at the caverns we were trying to figure out how to get a picture of the 4 of us with the National Park sign. That is when the Nature's Head Composting toilet that has been sitting in our trunk for the past 5 months finally paid off.

Cousin Eddie aka Chris with our lovely toilet tripod.

Hey if you look at the above picture it didn't come out too bad. haha Okay now back to the caverns.

When we arrived we decided we would do the 1.25 mile self guided tour of The Big Room. There are two ways to get there. One is by taking the elevator down 750 feet or you can do the steep hike down 1.25 miles to the natural entrance. We decided to take the elevator.

Mike and Kat heading into the cave

There are so many cool textures and formations

It's hard to capture the height and depth

The Big Room is the largest known natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere. The area of the cave is comparable to 14 football fields. It is pretty amazing. This is our third cave tour and hands down the best we have seen. It also had the best paved walking trail. Most are super slippery.

There are a couple markers through out the trail with information or you can rent an audio guide for a minimal fee at the visitor center.

Chris next to the "Rock of Ages"

Mike and Kat

The caverns were beautiful and we had a great time exploring.  Have you been? If so what tour did you do? We would love to hear about your experience in the comments below.

Big Bend National Park- Day 2

We kind of had a late start on our second day at the park. If you missed our blog post on day one you can read about it here.

We had a lot of things we were planning on doing but we didn't end up getting to all of them. We decided to start off by heading to the Chisos Basin area and hiking part of the Lost Mine Trail. This part of the park is Bear and Mountain Lion country.

Mountain lions and bears...oh my!

Once we turned on Chisos Basin Road we had to stop and get some pictures. It was a beautiful drive. The road has some steep grades and turns. If you are planning on camping in your RV and taking this road, it must be under 24 feet and no trailers larger than 20 feet.

I couldn't resist

Lost Mine Trail

This trail is considered moderate and is a 4.8 mile round trip.

It started off with a couple more warnings about the mountain lions and bears and what to do if you encounter either of them. It also mentioned to not bring small children on the trail. As we were hiking though, we of course passed a family with small children, lol.

We didn't have much time and heard that at the 1 mile marker there were some beautiful views of Casa Grande and Juniper Canyon so we stopped there.

Not bad

Chris approved.

We didn't see any mountain lions or bears but saw a couple butterflies. Not quite the same.

Chisos Mountains Lodge Restaurant

We were hungry and there really aren't many restaurants in Marathon so we decided to have a late lunch in the park. I had a veggie burger and Chris had a blue cheeseburger.

The food was just okay but the view from our table was pretty nice.

They have this old phone booth in the shop on the way out of the restaurant. The blue sign said it was for "entertainment only". I decided to amuse myself by getting a picture with it.

My "hold on I'm on the phone face"

Fossil Discovery Exhibit

This is a new exhibit that just opened in January 2017. We didn't know what it was but we decided to stop and check it out on our way out of the park.

We found out that around 130 million years ago Big Bend was a giant shallow sea. It kept evolving over time and around 70 million years ago it was a swampy environment inhabited by dinosaurs and giant alligators.

Fossil of the Deinosuchus  which means terrible crocodile.

According to their website "Big Bend National Park has over 70 Cretaceous era fossils, the most of any national park in the country".

There was a small trail to an overlook where you can see the mountains.

The layers of the mountain depict a timeline of the different periods (see pictures below with the  explanations).

Even though we had two days to explore, we feel like we just barely scratched the surface.

We would love to go back and stay at the park sometime. Have you been? If so what were some of your favorite things?