Home - Day 7

Cathy - Grant Grove

Left John Muir Lodge at 6:30 am. A clear day and little traffic. We had gone up the mountains taking the southern route, which is all hairpin turns for the last half hour of the drive. But coming home, we took the western route and it is a much easier drive. As we descended from 7,000' elevation, we began to see wildflowers--Gloriosa Daisies, Purple Lupine, California Buckeye, Sacred Datura, Yucca, Yellow Monkey Flowers, Black-eyed Susans. Also saw Mountain Quail crossing the road, Steller's Jays, hummingbirds, Fox Sparrows, and Mourning Doves.

Gloriosa Daisies

Arrived at Marie Callender's restaurant in Visalia 7:45 am. I always have a Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and Steve had French Toast with fresh strawberries.
Continued on our way. The drive goes through the heart of California agriculture country so drove through miles and miles of orange groves, lemon groves, pecan groves, even corn and soybean fields.

Arrived home at 12:30 after a quick stop at Trader Joe's to buy milk and bread and stuff. Unloaded the car and left all the suitcases in the laundry room as they are now all full of dirty clothes.
We had major road construction delays, major weather anomalies, and a random assortment of other major obstacles on the trip and so didn't do any of the things we usually do in Sequoia but we ended up doing other things and enjoying them every bit as much. WiFi was freely available in all the lodges but totally unpredictable so could never count on it.
It was a wonderful trip. Most memorable were the morning we woke up to several inches of snow, the roaring rivers and waterfalls, and -- as always -- the magnificent Giant Sequoia trees.