** June 21, 2008 Heading for the mountains - Grant Grove, King's Canyon, CA - meeting up with friends.

Climbing towards King's Canyon and Sequoia, the geography and geology changed considerably from my overheated prior few days.

Road to King's Canyon

All that's left of someone's dreams

Climbing to the Sierras

It cooled off as I drove up into the mountains; although from the views, it appeared there were forest fires in the area.

Road to Grant Grove and King's Canyon

Views on the road

Views

Views as we get higher up

A few smaller examples of wonderful nature caught my attention so I stopped to take some photos.  

Little pink plant (pussy paws)

Interesting rock formations

Little Lizard on a hot rock

Pink penstemon on a hot rock

I spent a bit of time wandering around on the Giant Forest Trails marveling at the amazing height and sense of presence of the giant sequoias there.  

Giant Sequoia lying down

At Grant Grove in King's Canyon Park I checked into the John Muir Lodge and met up with Diana and Peter.  Diana** (see below) is a story analyst at Warner Bros; she is also the author of Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma and Mrs. Elton in America (Sourcebooks), In Defense of Mrs. Elton (JASNA), and Onoto Watanna, a scholarly biography of her grandmother, the first Asian American novelist (University of Illinois Press).  

Her blog (http://lightbrightandsparkling.blogspot.ca/) is a varied and entertaining record of her writings and life.  We've met numerous times, have hiked in the Canadian Rockies together, plus in Sequoia and King’s Canyon before.  We are pretty good hiking partners.

** I am referring to Diana’s blog fairly from time to time in mine.  The reason for this is that, while I took rudimentary notes on the trip, I was unable to turn them into a proper journal for some time after my return (by which time my immediate memory had faded) as I came down with double pneumonia.  Many thanks Diana for letting me refer to your material.