Sequoia National Forest Trip - Part 1

Mr X and I recently took a trip to Sequoia National Forest in here California. It was great to see another side of California's beauty and allure before we move away. We arrived in the evening just before sunset with all of our brand new snowshoeing gear in tow. We were too excited to wait until the next day so after dinner we clumsily ran off into the black of the forest with our snow shoes strapped on. Thirty minutes later, creeped out a bit by darkness and unfamiliar noises, we arrived back at the lodge. Tramping about through the forest at night wasn't scary enough to prevent us from feeling exhilarated and we were both incredibly excited for the 'real' adventure that awaited us in the morning. Our plan was to hike from our lodge down to General Sherman and then continuing on down to the Giant Forest and then back. All in snowshoes, of course.

Here's Mr X the next morning, all ready to go:

We both started bundled completely up because we thought we'd freeze. As it turns out, snowshoeing really overheats you after you get going. So the coats came off and eventually so did both the hat and gloves. I was totally roasting.

This sign was very misleading - it pointed in the completely opposite direction and it wasted a good half hour of our time with it's trickery. Luckily we weren't in a hurry.

As you can see from the photo below, there was plenty of snow (that's the stop sign in the road). This picture was taken BEFORE the storm hit. I'm sure it was easily covered entirely by the next morning.

About halfway to General Sherman we came across this little structure - it was bathrooms with a bunch of port-a-potties out front.

I was hoping to use the ladies' room but it was locked and there were signs posted asking us to use the port-a-potties.

But that was impossible as the snow was way too high to be able to get the doors open. Oh well. I'm just happy I had The Freshette with me. (Seriously ladies, it's fantastic!)

We finally made it to see the General. The pictures below don't even come close to doing it justice. It is just amazing to see, in person, how massive these giant sequoia trees are. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight.

I have loads more pictures of the rest of our journey to the Giant Forest but this will do for now. I'll post the rest later, along with pictures of how much snow fell after the storm was over.