Sequoia National Park

Sequoia has been my dream vacation for several years now, and my Dad I got to go for fall break!! I'll sum it up in three words: Amazing, breathtaking, and cold.

I'll start out with some phone pictures from the drive into the park.

One of the most prominent things about California was the landscape. It was so flat?? Where are the trees?? My Dad kept saying that you could draw a line where the mountain began.
Where I live there are trees, and then the mountains are extended trees. Sometimes you barely notice that you're going uphill.

Me and my Dad shortly after we got into the park.

This was the first place we stopped in the park. There was a sign (too far away to get a picture of) that had a picture of ducks on it, and sure enough, there were ducks.

10 points if you can spot the tiny orange diamond. That's the duck sign.

This river was really pretty.

The mountains were beautiful.

We stopped on the side of the road for a while and I took that time to take pictures of some dead plants.

Oh look it's me.

The first sequoia picture! Can you see those tourists in the back? That tree is absolutely massive. I had to stand on a wall about fifty feet away to get the top in.

The museum was the last place we went on the first day. While my dad and I were inside reading about sequoias and buying shirts, it started to rain. According to several different people at the park, this is really weird weather for September, and it usually doesn't rain until November. It rained for a while, and then as the sun went down it started hailing. Because of this, it was very cloudy for the rest of the trip. It made it hard to take pictures because of the low light.

The next morning, we set out on a hike. The forest was beautiful.

My dad looking at a rock.

I think this tree was dead, but the wood pattern was so pretty.

This burn scar went all the way through the tree, but the tree just kept growing!

It was very foggy that morning.

It's like a fantasy forest. This was hands down the prettiest part of the forest.

I'm pretty sure these are sequoia cones. They're smaller than the average pine cone and are generally unremarkable, but they grow into some of the biggest trees on the planet.

This is not the whole tree. This is like a third of the tree. See the next picture.

Yes, that is the same tree.
There's something amazing about standing among things that are thousands of years older than you. Some of these trees are older than Jesus.

There were ferns everywhere.

The elusive sun makes an appearance!

We hiked to and then climbed Moro Rock, which has about a 300 foot elevation change. There were a lot of stairs.

And for all that climbing, this was the view we got!
We were literally inside a cloud.

We hung out up there for about 15 or 20 minutes, and this was the only break in the clouds we got. Well, it was pretty.

This is giving me intense winter vibes, except that the white in the back is fog and not snow.

Stairs on the way down.

This post is getting to be pretty long, so I'll make a part two and leave you with this:
Strive to be like a sequoia. Start out small and unremarkable, but make yourself into something amazing and beautiful. Live through metaphorical fires and keep standing. Don't let giant holes through your middle bother you. Live for thousands of years.
These trees are very inspiring.