4 Wheels 4 Girls

On May 5, after we saw the giant trees, we drove down into Kings Canyon along the Kings River. Kings Canyon was named by spanish explorers. Momma says it was named for the three kings in the christmas story.

Kings River was going fast, and it looked like it was going backwards, because it was full of waves and they looked like they were going backwards. There were so many waves because the water had to make its way over rocks and to the left and the right of the rocks. It was a very long river. It went all the way through Kings Canyon. The river was wild all the way up into the canyon, and then where all the trees were, it was calm and it looked like a lake, but it was a river.

We stopped for a short walk to Grizzly Falls. It was a big waterfall and it had a lot of melted snow coming down. It was like a big thunderstorm. We couldn’t walk right up to it because it was too wet and the air was full of cold water. Instead, we walked up to a rock along the side of the falls where it wasn’t so wet.

Happy and wet in the mist of Grizzly Falls

We walked to Roaring River Falls. I heard water. I smelled the smell of water. I saw a lot of rocks and a waterfall and a river with rapids and two lizards fighting on a big rock. I was careful near the rivers because I didn’t want to fall in. It would be scary and cold and I would drown maybe.

Sitting on the banks of the Roaring River in Kings Canyon

May 5th, we drove into Sequoia National Park. I really liked this park because of all the awesome trees… But I didn’t know about the Giant Sequoias on the first day. Well, I saw one Giant Sequoia that was only about 30 feet around the bottom, plus a giant stump, but that’s all we saw before we made it to our campground. But before the campground…

I was surprised when we came to a sudden stop. Dad told us to get our shoes on and hop out, so I did. I was the first one out (again) and I walked along the the sidewalk until I spotted the giant stump Dad had told us about. I walked over to it and stood by it, waiting for the rest of my family to come. Finally they came out and we got ready for a picture. Dad said, “Who can touch the top?” None of us could. It was at least 10 feet tall, maybe higher. I tried to kinda climb up it a little, but of course that didn’t work. It was just a giant stump with no branches and nothing to grab hold onto except the woodpecker holes. But we walked around back and there were way more woodpecker holes, bigger ones too. Greta tried to climb up and made it, so I decided I could make it, too. I did. When I stood up on top and walked to the end so I could see the family on the other side, Dad asked, “Could you camp up there? I mean, with a tent and everything?” I answered, “Oh, yeah, definitely.” And Greta agreed. It really was huge up there, but we didn’t have a camera up there to take a picture, and we were too high up to have Jean or Dad hand us one.

The Big Stump

The campground we stayed at was a pretty nice one, at least I thought, but it didn’t have showers, water, electricity, or any other hook-ups. We left early in the morning, and headed towards the Visitor Center. We made it to the Visitor Center and I was the first one out of the– (AGAIN!!!)–RV. I went down the street to the building and went inside. There was a cool museum in there. The parents didn’t give us enough time in there, but I guess I got a good enough look.

Later, we headed off to the Grant’s Grove Trail. I liked the Grant’s Trail. It was really cool ’cause of all the HUGE trees, and I do mean huge when I say it.

That's Jean and Ellie at the bottom of those giant trees.

There was this one tree that was 107 feet around the base. Now do you think I mean HUGE??! I know I was actually there, so even right now, when I’m writing about it, it’s easy to picture, but try to picture a tree that huge… Here’s a picture to help you out.

The giant sequoia behind us is called General Grant, and it is the second largest living creature in the world.

In Grant’s Grove, there were also two FALLEN Giant Sequoia trees, and they were definitely my favorite things on the trail. They were at least 250 feet long, and were hollow inside so you could walk all the way through them. It was awesome!!! There was one flat on the ground, and the other was laying on tilted ground, so if you wanted to go through it, you had to climb up-hill the whole way. When we went in that one, we climbed all the way up to the other end. When everyone else made it up, Ellie, Greta, and Ana threw pinecones down. It was really funny to see how far they would make it. And they had fun doing it too.

Inside a giant sequoia

Everything at Sequoia National Park was fun. You should go there someday too!

May 3, we drove out of Death Valley and made our way across the Sierra Nevada mountains. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of Mt. Whitney and its neighboring giants along the east face of the Sierras. Our next stop would be in Sequoia National Park, so we chose a pass through the mountains at the southern end of Sequoia National Forest.

Oftentimes we pick smaller roads, which might yield a more scenic view of the country. This time we learned–when it comes to mountain passes–the bigger roads are often a wiser choice. Our little road was beautiful, but the RV really struggled to climb up through the endless twists and turns in the forest. We thought the pass would never come. On the bright side, we did spot a bobcat crossing the road along the way.

We camped in Three Rivers, CA that night, next to a wild river, gushing over its banks and boulders, full of spring snowmelt.

The next day, we entered Sequoia National Park at the Foothills Entrance, planning to drive up through the park from the south, to see the grove of giant sequoias, one of which is General Sherman, the largest living creature on Earth. Instead, we learned that our RV was not allowed up the southern road through the park, and that we would have to turn around and drive back down out of the mountains and north to another park entrance, missing General Sherman altogether. Sigh.

So, we missed General Sherman, but General Grant, the second-largest living creature on Earth, would be waiting for us at the other park entrance.

May 4th, we were driving down the road. Suddenly we appeared in a forest of Joshua Trees. Dad and I had been looking for one since Tuzigoot and suddenly we were surrounded by them. I just wanted to let you know, Joshua, that I took a picture with one for you.

Me and the Joshua Tree

On May 3rd we finished our Death Valley junior ranger packets. When we got to the Visitor Center, we went to a table and looked at an album that taught you about the park. We had to look for a nocturnal animal. Guess what? I got a Badger. Don’t you think they are not nocturnal?

We turned in our junior ranger packets. Ranger Mike did our packets and our pledge. He was so nice.

Us with Ranger Mike

We went to the Salt River to see pupfish. When we got there we were all so hot. My dad and Ana and Greta left and me and Mommy and Stella stayed and locked up the RV. Then we came and saw minnows which were actually pupfish. We walked up to Daddy and said look at the pupfish. I thought they were so cute. We saw males chasing each other around and around. I told Daddy that I wanted one as a pet because they were cute.

Watching pupfish at the Salt River

After that we left Death Valley. I had fun but I hated the hotness.

After leaving Vegas and going to Trader Joe’s, we headed into my least favorite national park so far: Death Valley. I tell you, it was HOT. Grossly hot, disgustingly hot. By the time I could see the valley I was sweating by butt off and I was DYING. Now I don’t question why they call it Death Valley. When we reached sea level it was even worse. We took a picture of the “Sea Level” sign:

Ana doesn't actually look THAT hot. She did a lot better than me, that's for sure! You'd think living in Atlanta would teach me about hot weather extremes!

We finally got to the visitor center in Furnace Creek, at the bottom of the valley, and got out of the RV. I sprinted into the building, which to my fabulous luck was well air-conditioned. I’m not sure if I had ever appreciated air-conditioning as much as I had right then. After meeting the rangers and finding out more about the park, we went to do a walk in the lowest point in North America- Badwater Basin. I also believe it is a place where people can die of being overheated. We were 282 feet below sea level when we reached the salt flats where we would be walking. It was kinda cool ’cause there was a sign on the side of the cliff 282 feet above us saying “Sea Level”:

You see it way up there?! Directly above the RV, halfway up the cliff.

The ground was full of salt, (you could lean down and taste it!) and water that flows into the basin carries it there. The walk was excruciatingly hot, and Dad and Jean made me wear a ridiculous hat ’cause of the sun. Go ahead and laugh; I know I look SOOOOOOOO stupid. Here we are in Badwater Basin:

On the salt flats. Do we look as hot as I say we are?

We unfortunately had to go on another hike that night into the golden canyon. Luckily it wasn’t very long. It was really pretty and the heat was actually worth it for this one, except at the end. The sand fleas came out and bit Stella and me to pieces, so I guess that wasn’t so great. Those bites hurt!!!

We stayed at a campground very close to the visitor center. We had a small meal of sandwiches and salad ’cause Jean didn’t want to turn on the oven because of the heat. We went to bed sweating. I hated it. 🙁

Death Valley was awful!!! Go there only if you like extreme heat and sweating basically all the water out of your body.

We went to a lunch buffet at Treasure Island. Our dad told us to get a lot of vegetables and healthy food before we went to the desert line. I got mashed potatoes, bbq ribs, a biscuit, and a huge caesar’s salad. I felt a little full, but I remembered it was time for desert. Me and Stella ran to get our deserts. We split some cinnamon donuts and powdered donuts, and we each grabbed a cookie. We also got ice cream; Stella got chocolate vanilla swirl and I got tropical fruit. Greta told us she had gotten malted milk balls. We all went back and got malted milk balls, three each. We stuffed them in our pockets to save them for later because they were so good.

Dad says this picture sums up Las Vegas better than anything else

After lunch we continued our walk along the Vegas Strip.

On May 2nd, we took a day in Vegas and it was AWESOME. I love the city so so so much. We woke up and got ready; I got my camera because I knew I would be taking tons of pictures. Our campground was at an old casino called Circus Circus, and we went through it to get into the city. I would tell you every single thing about it, but the day was too long and there was just too much to even remember every detail. I was glad I took my camera- throughout the course of the day I took almost 400 pictures! I’m not even kidding.

If only I could shop there

We saw lots of cool casinos- Treasure Island, with two life-size pirate ships, Mirage, a fancy one with lots of fountains, and Venetian, a casino with a sky on the ceiling inside! There were lots more but those are some of the big ones. Then we went to one called Caesar’s Palace and I took over 100 pictures of all the glamorous shops.

There's Poseidon, Stella's hero in huge form

By this time we were very hungry, so we stopped back in at Treasure Island and found a buffet. It was DELICIOUS, except for one thing: I accidentally ate a SUPER hot pepper that left me in pain for hours afterward. I had sushi, sandwiches, pasta, salad…..and of course dessert; LOTS of it! Everything (except the pepper!) tasted so good.

The moat in front of Treasure Island. Doesn't it look like it is about to eat Stella?

After lunch we got a bus pass and rode around in an awesome double-decker bus and looked around at all the casinos we hadn’t seen yet: Luxor, a casino shaped like a giant pyramid, Excalibur, one shaped like a castle, and New York New York, with a Statue of Liberty made entirely out of jelly beans! Jelly beans are my absolute favorite candy, so it was a completely awesome surprise to see it! Here I am with it:

I wanted to eat this Statue of Liberty so badly!

We saw a super cool fountain show at Bellagio, another casino, and then we headed back to Circus Circus to take a little break. Our feet hurt and some of us had headaches. However, that little break never did happen. We got last-minute tickets to The Blue Man Group, this show starring these three crazy men painted completely blue that do hilarious bizarre things. I’m telling you, they are HYSTERICAL. You have GOT to see them. We rushed back to the RV to get our sweatshirts, picked up sandwiches at a Subway, then caught a shuttle to Venetian where the show was playing. We ran to the theater and watched the show, laughing our heads off and enjoying the show thoroughly. I won’t tell you any more about it ’cause you’ve gotta go see it for yourself.

Doesn't he look awesome?

For the rest of the night we rode around on the shuttle looking at all the casinos lit up. They were so pretty. We watched a pirate show at Treasure Island but it was a big disappointment because we could hardly see anything and nothing really that exciting happened. After the show we seemed to wait FOREVER for the bus to come, and then we finally rode back to the RV and went to bed. It was an exhausting, fun, and exciting day!

On May 1st, we went to Las Vegas to get Momma from Denver. We were in a big rush to get Momma, because I wanted to see her. But then she texted Stella and guess what she said? Her flight was delayed for one hour. So we stopped at a Subway for dinner. We had a big surprise, it was closed. We kept driving and found a Subway that was open. I had a BLT. Then we drove all the way to Las Vegas.

Driving in, we saw the big needle building. It had a roller coaster on top. We drove past Circus Circus. We saw our campground in back of Circus Circus, but kept driving so we could see the casinos. They were cool. We Daddy said Caesar’s Palace was on the left, I thought he said Caesar’s Salad. We saw part of the pirate show on the way back to Circus Circus.

We did not gamble in the casinos.

We went to the campground and went to bed, because it was getting very late. We did not pick up Momma at the airport because she was getting to Las Vegas late. Even later than before her flight got delayed the first time. When Momma got to the campground I was the only kid awake. She hugged me. I was glad I was awake so Momma could hug me.

May 1st, we got ready for our last day at the awesome Zion National Park. It really was awesome, especially that last day. We went on two hikes, and we were planning to do four and a half miles of hiking. But of all the walking in the whole day, we walked about five or five and a half miles. It wasn’t hard, though, actually, it was quite easy, but doesn’t it sound like a lot of walking to you? Five miles? Sounds like quite a lot to me. ( Although we did six miles yesterday so easily that I thought we did only four.)

So anyway, the first hike we did was two miles, (and these were extremely easy miles that were all paved and flat) one mile in, one mile back. The hike went to the beginning of the Narrows, a hike where the only path is the Virgin River. It goes through narrow valleys and it’s one of the most advanced hikes in the country. Since it flows through thin and narrow valleys, it is called the Narrows.

We walked the first trail, down to the Narrows, and it was pretty fun. It was also pretty horrifying, though, because of all the squirrels. People in Atlanta, you might be thinking, squirrels? There are tons of squirrels here! And they aren’t scary at all! They’re just little furry animals with bushy tails that don’t even come anywhere near you! And hey! Don’t say squirrels are mean or scary because I like these squirrels and I’m very protective of them! Well, I feel the same way about the Atlanta squirrels, but the squirrels here in Zion give me nightmares. I might sound ridiculous but they were SO SCARY!! They kept on running across the hiking path, right in front of me. Sometimes they were so close that I almost stepped on them. They were really scary in that way. But also, they were really aggressive because humans feed them. When humans feed wild animals, the animals forget how to live on their own.

But anyway, the squirrels. The squirrels were really aggressive because they have been fed their whole lives.

On the way back from the entrance to the Narrows, there was this one woman who was trying to get her picture taken with the pretty, colorful rocks in the backround, and she sat on a colorful stone or rock or whatever you want to call it with a second one right next to it, almost touching, and a squirrel came up to her, thinking she was sitting there, waiting for the squirrel to come up to her (which it did) and get some delicious, yummy food. When it came up, at first it only came up to the bottom of the rock right next to the one she was sitting on, but pretty soon it decided that wasn’t enough. He jumped up on the rock and sat up there watching her. Then he stuck his paw out and scratched at her sleeve… If I were that lady I would have given up my picture, screamed, peed, and ran! I really was scared of those squirrels…

On the way to the second hike, we got off the shuttle at the Zion Lodge. When we stopped to pick up litter, Ana spotted a gray fox. It was awesome! It was so awesome, I almost forgot to add it in the post!

Ana spotted this gray fox near the Zion Lodge

The second hike was to the Emerald Pools. The Emerald Pools are these seep springs coming from the top of the mountains and making pools when they had to go onto flat land. There was a lower pool, a few middle pools,(which were closed) and an upper pool. We were planning to hike all the way up to the upper pool, which we did, but you have to pass by the lower pool to get to the upper pool.

There were three mule deer along the Emerald Pools trail

Once we made it up to the upper pool, we got to have our peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches that we had packed. Right when we were getting finished with our food, a squirrel came close, so close that I… Can you guess what I did? You’re probably thinking, Screamed, peed, and ran! And you’re very close… I screamed, leapt and ran! And man, I leapt far! I shreiked and took off for the trail!

We headed back down the trail to the bottom and we made it back safe and dry.

That day was pretty fun… I’ll have more tomorrow!