BIG Trees...or so they say...

When we were planning our trip, The Boy really wanted to see "the big trees" in the Redwood Forest. We told him they were too far north for our itinerary and we thought we'd be much further south when we turned left at San Diego to drive across California towards Las Vegas.

Well, our change in plans brought us much closer to the Sequoia National Park, so we took off from Bakersfield to see the BIG trees. Except...

Thanksgiving 2011
Remember that time that Daddy tried to take us to see "the big trees" in California? We set out with the best, if a little naive, of intentions. As we approached Sequoia National Park, we realized that "the big trees" are between 5000-7000 ft. in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Um...remember how they turned us away at the gate of the Sequoia National Park and told us we had to go rent (or buy) CHAINS for our rented 25ft RV?

And how Mommy said no?

And Daddy did it anyway?

And then how we threw the chains in back of the RV, just in case, and headed off again for the park? We stopped at the Visitor's Center (small, but well-designed and informative) and then were able to go to the Hospital Rock where we saw a big rock that you could climb through to the other side. As The Boy said, "It was cool." TLO added, "We saw Indian writing on the rocks, too!"

Then we drove as far as we felt we could (without chains) and turned around.

No big trees.

But, remember how Daddy picked up a ball of snow for TLO (who was raised in Hawaii) and put it in the RV sink?

Remember how Mommy later read in the rental agreement that we were forbidden to put chains on the RV? Good thing we didn't!