I just read through my previous blogs to see what I was doing before I fell off the face of WordPress. It turns out that the last time I wrote was in the beginning of summer and now…summer is over in four days. WAT.  Now let me rack my brain and phone for pictures to see what I’ve been doing during my blogging hiatus.

The first weekend of summer started off HOT. I gave my two weeks notice to a soul-crushing job and an impromptu two day trip to Sequoia National Park.

Little did we know that National Park camp sites are pretty much booked solid all summer with many campers booking months ahead. We decided to wing it and made our way to Goldledge Campground–that was also completely booked. Thankfully, a fellow camper let us share their site until we could move to our own the following morning.

We spent our first morning really roughing it and went to The Cracked Egg in Kernville for breakfast before heading to the Hundred Giants Trail.

After lunch, we went to Needle’s Point. The four mile-long driveway/road there was very bumpy–even in Jack’s jeep–but we eventually made it to the base with only minor scrambled brains and started our hike.

The hike itself wasn’t too difficult, especially when I compare it to hiking in Yosemite two weeks later. It was still a nice five mile hike with an 8,000 ft peak.

At the tippy top of the mountain there was a burnt watch tower that went up even higher. It was closed off with barbed wire and was too rickety looking for my taste, so I did attempt to climb it. But SOMEONE did and took this sweet pic. If you squint, you might be able to see me in the bottom left panicking.

On the way back, we stopped by the Hundred Giants Trail again so I could hug a sequoia, then headed back to make an interesting dinner of green beans, baked beans, and burgers. Apparently Jack had never seen Blazing Saddles.

The next morning, we woke up at 4:30 AM to head to Sequoia National Forest to see the giant forest. I didn’t realize that there was a difference between the SN Forest and SN Park. If you didn’t know either, the SN Park is where most of the giants reside.

We made a pit stop at a strawberry stand and tunnel rock before making it to the big beauties. While walking around we saw the Booker T. Washington tree–very cool!–the started our ascent on Moro Rock.

Moro Rock had an incredible 360 degree view of the park, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified. Especially towards the top where there aren’t railings, I was VERY shaky. I do highly recommend it though because realistically it’s safe and you’ll be humbled when you make it to the top and see a four year old tottering around with no care in the world.

Finally, we saw the thickest sequoia of the land–General Sherman–and made out merry way home. It was an busy two days and I’m not super outdoorsy into peeing where a rattlesnake could chomp my rump, but I thought it was a blast!. It was also an eye-opener for our big Yosemite trip. In that, we weren’t prepared at all.

And this was just all in the first weekend! Hopefully, I get around to writing about the rest.