Life on the Beach: Backpacking in Sequoia National Park

Guess where we are: Oregon or Alaska... nope... We're in California.


Pear Lake with Brandon

Who knew it could get so beautiful down here.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Brandon, Regie, Ross, Mike and I went up to Sequoia National Park for a backpacking trip.

We left late Friday night, drove to the entrance of the park and slept in the car. Well, Mike and Brandon slept in the front seats, I curled up in the middle section and Ross and Regie grabbed their stuff and headed outside to sleep under the stars... and ultimately a tarp because it started raining :/

Our first stop in the park: The General Sherman. The largest living organism. After getting gourmet breakfast sandwiches at the Lodge, we started on our way.

[Mike, Brandon, me, Regie and Ross]

[It was cold]

[Regie, Ross, Brandon and Mike]

["Look, we are making the shape of a heart with our heads..."]

As we were gathering all our stuff for the hike, Brandon is in the corner wrapping his feet in produce bags he stole from the grocery store early that day so they wouldn't get wet through his shoes. I thought it was so funny and weird that I wouldn't stop making fun of him for it. About a minute before we left for the hike, I was in the passenger seat, trying to hide that I was wrapping my feet in bags to keep them from getting wet. Tennis shoes are not preferred footwear for snow hiking...

We hiked about 6 miles to our camping spot, ate a delicious freeze-dried meal and sat drying our socks off around a beautiful fire Ross crafted. The next morning, we visited Pear lake, about a mile away. The boys were brave enough to jump into the freezing water, but I got to pull the I'm-just-a-girl card.

While the weather was sunny one minute, cloudy and cold the next, I don't think I have ever been in a more beautiful place.