Camping Trip To Sequoia With New Swiss Friends

Harmony Hill was only 45 minutes from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. So with our new friends from Switzerland we took a weekend camping trip. It was great fun with many laughs and some great pics. 

Packing assistance

We picked up a book about John Muir who was instrumental in helping to get National Parks created. In 1903, on a three-day camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt, he convinced the president of the importance of a national conservation program, and he is given major credit for saving the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Petrified Forest. He's also the founder of the Sierra Club and it's President until his death. Sounds like an interesting guy and we look forward to reading all about his adventures. Charly has also become a member of the Sierra Club. Yay!

Cool waterfall spray

Glarpa! Mix refried beans with whatever you have in the fridge plus cheese and you have a great dip...mmm tasty!

They're so cute.

Ahhhh Coffee!

Many a person loved me in the morning because of my handy dandy espresso maker.

Ice Cream Break!

Waterfall Madness

Mountain view from Moro Rock

Emile and Zoe.

A wild cat in a sequoia trunk

Oh my Charly is a giant

Big Trees

Beautiful Meadow

Relaxing hike

Momma and cub

So Cute

Pretty Lichen

Little Sequoia beginnings

Word

http://www.nps.gov/seki/

WWOOFing in Exeter California

HARMONY HILL

Our first wwoofing experience. WWOOF=World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Interesting concept the volunteers get food and lodging in exchange for working on an organic farm.

http://www.wwoofusa.org/

http://www.wwoof.org/

Entrance to Harmony Hill

The Ranch

Our new home in the barn

Dinner with WWOOF hosts and WWOOFers

Hen and chick

Harmony the goat can be sassy

Ain't she cute!

Emile and Zoe from Switzerland

Off to work I go

WWOOFers having a night in town

Chicks

Chickens

Cool Pic

Death Valley

Took off from Las Vegas and drove through Death Valley. Strange Beauty here, desolate and hot. The car overheated at one point. We could hear the coolant boiling in the engine. Eeek! It was around 101 the day we were there and this was early spring so I can't imagine visiting in summer. 

Why is Death Valley the hottest spot in North America? Low elevation is one cause, but the valley's enclosing mountains recirculate hot air and keep it from dissipating at night. Summer daytime highs often reach 120 degrees F, and lows may not drop below 100 degrees F at night. 

Ohh Ohh and we saw a kangaroo rat (the don't drink water they get all the water they need from the seeds they eat) and a wierd salamander thing. 

The Devil's Golf Course

Hiking in the Gold Canyon

Death Valley sand dunes

The lowest spot in the U.S. (I'm drowning)

Zabriskie Point

Strange Beauty in one of the hottest places on earth

Setting up camp in a barren wasteland.

Moonrise over Death Valley

VIVA LAS VEGAS!

Heading to our first WWOOFing gig in Exeter, California we make our way through Nevada. We visited Hoover dam, ate some horrible buffet food, and then walked the strip. Compared to the natural beauty I've seen in the past month, Vegas just cannot compare. The glitz and glamour just wasn't enough. 

Charly: but the ship battle at TI was pretty cool and the Belagios water show, too

Hoover Dam

Hello Nevada

I take Travel Bear out on the town

Charly on the strip

Muy Grande

All I have to say is it's worth the visit but don't know what I can really say. Perhaps I leave it to Charly to say a few words. Oh...one thing I can say is I see a rim to rim hike of the canyon in my future. 

Tony and I did the hike into the canyon the first day there (6 mi) and then the day after that we did the easy rim walk (7mi). Guess which was more difficult??? For me it was the rim CUZ MY LEGS WERE JELLY after the previous days hike! Oh and we did that hike as fast up and we did down- a total of only 4 hours! We were so proud:) We also saw maybe like 5 California condor on that hike (we heard this had something to do with an elk that had fallen to its death nearby causing the condors to be quite active). For those of you who don't know, I didn't, the condor can have a wingspan of up to 9 ft. 

Cloudy canyon day

Desert view tower

Hiking the canyon

Tony and I saw our FIRST ELK at the grand canyon, too! Though it wasn't on a hike, it was while we were driving through the little town they have on site. Unfortunately, we have no picture because there were cars behind us:(

Star at the canyon

The grand canyon was also the place we realized-woah- there are more foreign people here than Americans. I guess we are pretty lucky to have the national park system. 

Grand vista

First stop on canyon hike

And of course, who could forget that the grand canyon is the place where Tony and I had been camping and had to switch our site to stay one day longer. So, being too lazy to completely take down the tent, we carried the fully assembled tent with our sleeping bags and everything in them down the road to our next camping site... and yes, we did get some pretty weird looks but it was hair-larious!

She hikes the canyon

Link: http://www.nps.gov/grca/