Hume Lake Weekend, Part III: The National Parks

We visited Kings Canyon and the Kings River on Sunday, enjoying a picnic lunch by the river.

The drive is winding and beautiful. 

Thanks to Colleen for most of these photos!

The air was hot, but the water was very cold and refreshing.

On Monday, after we left Hume Lake, we went home through Sequoia National Park, and took a short detour for a photo opp with the Sequoias.

Getting this photo took a lot of cajoling, and inspired a good amount of whining.

This is the tree we were posing by - crazy how big they are, when you see how wide it is when we're standing in front of it.

Silliness - the album cover.

Hume Lake Weekend, Part I

We were blessed to spend the long Labor Day holiday weekend at beautiful Hume Lake, in the Sequoia National Forest, with our dear friends.

Violet had wanted to return to the area, and also had asked about camping again with Colleen and Rigo. Colleen invited us to join them at Hume Lake Christian Camp for the weekend, where the camp was celebrating its annual Labor Day Country Fair and, also, its 75th anniversary.
 

We caravanned up Friday evening and shared a cabin with 6 bunks (12 beds) and lived like the teens do when they're at summer (or winter) camp!

On Saturday morning, we had a yummy breakfast among the big trees.

There were lots of kids carnival games and rides, which our kids were too old for, but Cora bought two chairs at the rummage sale. Thankfully Rigo had driven his truck, so we could get them home. Cora will paint them black and they'll go with the D&D table.

We walked around and got our bearings in the camp, and most of us did one of the ropes courses. I'll post on that separately. We then went back and rested/napped in the cabin.

At dinner time, we met up with some other friends, Christina and her family.

Kids table - playing a hand-slapping game, not holding hands...

Violet and I got in some reading time Sunday.

Violet loved being at the lake. She and Liana had so much fun together, like always. Sadly, a few days before our trip, the National Forest closed access to all campgrounds, trails and lakes, all over California, because of increased fire risk. 

Thankfully, Hume Lake Christian Camp is private property, and could still host the event. BUT, the lake itself was closed - no boating or paddleboarding, which we'd been looking forward to.

The girls wore their "crazy sister" shirts Cora bought for them last summer. 

Violet's reads: "Back off! I have a crazy sister. She has anger issues and a serious dislike for stupid people. And I'm Not Afraid To Use Her"

Cora's reads: "I'm the CRAZY SISTER everyone warned you about!"

On Saturday night, we enjoyed pie on the giant lawn, and then the kids played all sorts of games on the grass and at the volleyball court.

On Sunday morning, we attended a church service on the same lawn, where we admired the lake and thanked God for 75 years of ministry and growth at the camp. Violet definitely would like to go with Liana next summer! (Cora liked it all, but isn't sold on the idea of sharing a cabin with 10 girls.)

On Sunday evening, we returned to the same lawn for a worship concert by Matt Redman, a Grammy-award-winning singer whose songs we've sung at church for years. That was a lot of fun, too!

Sequoia Part III

We headed back into the park Tuesday to see a few more highlights before making the drive home. This time, we stopped at the visitor center in Sequoia, where Vi posed near another big sequoia. We waited in line to get into the gift shop, and bought a few things to take home. 

We then drove up to Crescent Meadow, where on our way to the meadow we drove through a fallen tree. Talk about a tree tunnel!

It's truly hard to believe how huge these sequoias are.

We walked around the meadow, and Vi was anxious to get on the road home. But I knew we all really wanted her to be able to see a bear! This seemed like our last chance. 

And then, a little ways up ahead, another family was pointing and whispering and showed us what they'd spotted!

We'd forgotten our camera and phones, so they later texted me this pic.

The bear was going in a direction that neared the big parking lot, so Stace ran back to the car to grab Violet's good camera. When he got back, he got these photos.

It's hard to know the perspective, but this really wasn't a big bear. It seemed like a teenager to me, maybe the size of a Great Dane.

What a blessing, right at the end of the trip, as I'd been praying the whole few days!

Then, we began making our way home. Thanks for the memories, Sequoia!

Sequoia Part II

We headed back into Sequoia on Monday morning, and on the way, we spotted two deer in the brush along the side of the road in Three Rivers. I know they're hard to see in the picture, but there's one on the left, looking toward the hill, and another on the right side.

The Kaweah River in the foothill area on the way into the park is very pretty.

We drove past the General Sherman Tree on our way to Kings Canyon, and pulled off when we saw a sign for a meadow. Meadows can be great spots to see bear, but no luck this time. However, we did get to use a clean parks restroom - a big plus on a road trip!

Once in Kings Canyon, we stopped at Grants Village, not far from the famous General Grant sequoia tree and home to eateries and a gift shop and visitor center. 

We moved on another mile to the Grant Grove Stables, where we had an hour horse ride booked. This was a highlight of the trip! 

Riding among the sequoias... what a memory.

Our horses were all sweet, and easy to ride.

We then continued driving further into Kings Canyon, to the bottom of the valley along the big Kings River.

We stopped near the river so Violet could try fishing.

We then drove the final few miles to the end of the road, to show Violet beautiful Zumwalt Meadow. 

This is where we saw bears on our first trip, when Cora was a baby.

No such luck today, but we did see a beautiful 11-year-old.

The quick and easy path to see the meadow was blocked, so we had to take the long way around, which included this rocky trail.

On our way back to the motel, we had to make a side trip to Hume Lake, where we were relieved to find open gas pumps. We'd realized that we didn't have enough fuel to get to the motel, and we were a long way from a real town. 

But we'd stopped at the Hume Lake Christian Camp earlier in the day, to show Violet where I'd gone to camp as a teenager with my church. We'd noticed the general store had pumps out front, but failed to notice that we had less than half a tank - and would be burning the fuel going down and back up Kings Canyon.

After dodging that bullet and filling the tank, we decided to have dinner at the camp. We bought a pizza, and enjoyed the view of the lake and the chatter of young people enjoying their camp experience.

I hope this girl might someday attend a camp here, maybe with Liana. Lucas will be attending camp here in a few weeks.

Our drive to the motel was long, hours long. It was pretty though, and we stopped once to grab this photo after the sun had set.