Today’s blog post, I am sharing our Sequoia National Forest Family Camping Trip. For our summer vacation this year we decided to do a week vacation with half of it camping and the other half in a hotel. We decided on Sequoia because we had been there before when Madi was young and loved it. Funny story, first time we camped there, we totally thought we were going to the National Park. Dave booked our camp ground online and we thought it was in the park. When we drove up, we noticed that we never actually entered a national park. So, we asked some people at the store and sure enough, we were in the National Forest. It takes about 3 or 4 hours to get to the National Park from the forest. You have to drive down the mountain and then around and up. Even though it wasn’t our intention, we kind of fell in love with it. The crowds are much smaller and it just had a cool vibe to it.
So, we decided to do the Forest again. We drove up on a Sunday morning to spend 3 nights in a tent. I love camping but there are a few things I don’t like about it. Like, bugs and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. Thankfully a friend let us borrow two cots and it makes a world of difference. We stayed at the Belknap campground. It has quite a few camping spots and there are giant sequoias throughout the area. We had one right next to our car.
Less than a 5 minute walk from our campsite is a walking trail that follows a stream up the mountain. We fished there last time and caught quite a few fish. Unfortunately this time they informed us that they no longer stock fish in the stream. We attempted to catch a few since we brought all our gear, but unfortunately didn’t catch any. That trail is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever walked. There are trees all over and giant sequoias as well. There are cabins interspersed around and we are thinking of renting one of those next time.
We took 2 drives to different hikes while we were there. One was about an hour drive to the 100 giants trail. It is about a mile trail with 100 giant sequoias around. Some of them have fallen, and you can see the huge roots in some of the photos below. The last hike we drove to was to the 5th largest tree in the world. The tree is actually on private property but the owners allow people to hike down to it. It is pretty amazing. There are photos of Madi standing in it and a few more. It really is awe inspiring to be surrounded by such giants.
They were bribed for the above photo, don’t be fooled.
Wow, a photo with me. Thank you to the lovely couple who took it for us.
She is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.
That little grumpy face was pretty frequent during a lot of our trip. However, one of our last days we spent at the beach and this kid was happier then I have ever seen him in my life.
Look at the size of that tree that fell.
5th largest tree in the world. It is hard to see its full size from here because you have to walk around it, the back part goes down a hill a little bit, but man, it’s huge. 
I kept seeing these huge Dandelions on the side of the mountain. I am so glad I actually pulled over to get some photos with them. So often I see things that I want to stop for but then don’t. Thank you to Dave for being happy when I do it. 
Mylo didn’t want to get out of the car so Madi brought one over to his window so he could blow it.
I didn’t bring my big camera around much in LA. However, we did go to the Old LA zoo and I had my camera. It was almost totally dark so I didn’t get much but it was pretty cool. There was also a Shakespeare Play going on in the grounds so we walked into an unexpected experience.
Ok, ready for the next trip 😉
XO-Jamie
