The night before, we had planned to get out of the mountains quickly before the freezing rain and ice came, but by the morning the forecast had improved somewhat and we felt confident hanging out for a few hours to test our luck. I went to the take-out restaurant to procure some hot breakfasts, while Zac stayed in the room with the kids and got everything packed up and ready to go. We had breakfast in the lodge great room again, and this is where the first and only great tragedy of the trip befell us: the kids' and Zac's Nalgene water bottles got left behind at the table. I had excused myself early to go back to the room to brush my teeth and finish packing and Zac came to get damp paper towels to clean up the syrupy mess left on the tables, then they all came back to the room and I went to check us out, and somehow in all those transitions, the bottles were lost. We didn't realize it until much later though.
John Muir Lodge, where we stayed, seemed old, but then I found out it was built in 1998, the year I graduated high school.
While Zac and I were loading up the car, the kids ran off to play around outside the hotel and enjoyed finding giant pinecones. Look closely and you can see some snow flurries in the pictures.
(So although we lost the water bottles here, we managed to bring Alice's giant sugar pine cone all the way home. Seems like a fair trade.)
We drove down the road a bit to get to Grant Grove, home of the General Grant Tree. Since it was a Monday morning and we were so close, we beat the crowds for once. I loved the place immediately because check out these giant sequoias right next to the parking lot!
Grant Grove has a few fallen trees that you are allowed to go through. This was super fun for the kids! This one is known as the Fallen Monarch.
The roots (what's left of them after over 300 years) were really cool!
This is the Gamlin Cabin, the first civilian structure built in in Grant Grove, back in 1872.
Then we headed off the main path a bit, and found another giant tree to climb through. The kids played in here for a while.
Zac took the creative photo below from inside the fallen trunk, and I love it because it's like the eye of the dead gazing upon the living.
Meanwhile, I found my own fallen tree to lay on and look up at the branches of the towering sequoias. Although the sky was gray and the air was cold, it was still a beautiful morning, with the occasional snow flurries.
It was fun to explore and have most of this part to ourselves.
I still can't get over how silly the sequoia crowns look. They are so disproportionate, and remind me of those cell phone towers disguised as trees. Here is the famous General Grant tree, and it looks absolutely ridiculous.
Mindful of the time and the impending bad weather, we eventually started heading back down towards the General Grant tree -- the widest sequoia, and the second largest in the world, after General Sherman. On one side of General Grant, there is a big fire scar.
The pictures are taken pretty far away from it, so it's hard to get a true sense of how big it is from these pictures. But trust me, this was a big tree.
After checking out the tree, we got back in the car and drove a bit west to the Big Stump Grove. I thought this place would be depressing, but it turned out to be amazing and fun despite my constant horror that people could cut down these giants.
The kids had a lot of fun trying to climb up the stumps.
They found a glacial patch of snow and had a blast playing on it.
I liked how some of the trunks of fallen trees resembled gothic cathedrals.
This tree was hungry and tried to eat Simon!
A little after noon we decided we'd tested fate long enough and decided to head back to the car so we could drive out of the mountains before the bad weather arrived. We were very grateful the weather had held out -- it would've been sad to skip these sights.
We only had about a two hour drive to get to Oakhurst, the town where we would spend the night and get ready for Yosemite. It rained on the drive, and we were happy to be snug and dry inside our little Kia Forte.
In Oakhurst, known as the south gate to Yosemite, we lucked out and found the perfect shopping center that met all our needs on the way to our hotel. First, we went to Vons, a giant grocery store, where we stocked up on tons of snacks for our 3-night stay at Yosemite. Next, we went to a discount sporting goods store and got both kids warm hats and Simon a new pair of shoes (we were afraid his very worn-out current pair would completely fall apart with our longer and even rockier hikes at Yosemite). Then Zac and Simon filled up the car with gas while Alice and I walked to a Chinese restaurant to get our early supper ordered. At 4pm, we were the only customers, so we felt safe eating indoors (we were still trying to be fairly covid-cautious). We had great food and great views of the rain clouds and what looked like snow up in the mountains--where we were headed tomorrow.
A picture of our provisions for Yosemite.
Since we got to the hotel (the Best Western Plus Yosemite Gateway Inn) fairly early, after settling in, Alice and I went around exploring all the kitsch around the hotel grounds.
Then we rested up for the pinnacle of our trip: Yosemite!
