Sequoias, people!

Since the beer induced nap in the desert at the Nevada/California border, we took a detour and ended up driving towards Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We just got a hankerin' to see some big trees. Little did we know the impression they would leave on us....we LOVED them, no, we fell IN LOVE with them. For the first time I understood what all the fuss is about the magical forest. Those freakin' giant sequoias and redwoods are UNBELIEVABLE!!!! breathtaking....like, seeing them caused me to take a deep breath and pause before taking another. Really! something otherworldly, their vibration, sorry to sound like such a treehugger, but....

o'kay, I'm speechless. Just look at them.

    We were aimed at Lake Kaweah, which turned out to be a man made lake, made by the creation of the Terminus Dam and no doubt, the flooding of the valley where the town of Lemon Cove now is. When we arrived at Lake Kaweah Campground, there was a big sign saying it was closed, although the road to it was not.
  Fortunately, we did not do our usual doubting act and go down there, because we later found out, that it was closed because "THEY" let too much water out of the dam and into the valley causing Lake Kaweah Campground to be UNDERWATER!!! It's interesting how you can tell when you look at it that it's man made. There was something eery and not quite right about it...not including the fact that there are full grown trees half-submerged and the Lake Kaweah Beach that seemed to be a parking lot is now submerged...no doubt half of the former parking lot to the beach, is now, ya, you got it, submerged and so the footing to the new beach is the parking lot. Still, it was beautiful, in a man made kind of way.

It looks sort of normal until you notice that the trees are half under water....the vegetation on the surrounding landscape looks a little weird too.
You can read the history of Lake Kaweah here: Lake Kaweah/Sequoia National Park I found it very interesting, myself.

See the parking lot/beach? Bizarre.

The best part was that, necessity being the mother of invention, we found Lemon Grove/Sequoia Campground, simple without any wifi or cable but sweet, and friendly and nestled up against the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the night entertainment was howling coyotes and a few mountain lion roars. We got home very late and during dinner (at nearly midnight) at the picnic table, I caught the eye of one travelling quickly through the campground. No doubt, it considered our steak for a split second. Phew.

These are oranges. We didn't actually SEE any lemons in Lemon Grove but the oranges were good and we had one with some Raw Milk cheese for breakfast on the way out. The peel made a great car air freshener too. (cause the only thing better than dog smell in a car is orange flavoured dog smell.

Bravo Farms....BRAVO!!!! we could not resist the succession of witty, wistful highway billboards as we approached the exit for it. It was so promising of all manner of things fun, and we found even more than that!
mmmmmm, artisan Sage Cheddar cheese!
It was only noon and technically the cheeseburgers deluxe we had, were our breakfast, so we couldn't face a winetasting, but the farmers market, fresh local produce and KEEEEEYUTE gift shop were SO much more than we expected.


........and LOOK at these miniature donkeys!