King's Canyon (Part 2)

Woo hoo. Wifi strong enough to get ALL of these photos posted. :)

I think I mentioned that the drive was supposed to take an hour but that clearly didn't factor in pulling over at every opportunity. 

Who drives by this view and doesn't stop?

We had a perfect day- mostly clear skies and a hot sun!

Jackson always likes to stand really close to the edge and give me panic attacks.

I just loved every view.

We just kept driving through the park on its crazy winding roads when we came to a pull off for a waterfall. We missed the first entrance and inadvertently came in the exit. No big deal, right? WRONG. Suddenly I have a park ranger behind me with his lights on. Crap. I get out of the car and quickly get told to get back in. Whoops! He approaches and asks for my license which is in the trunk. He makes us wait forever and then gives me a warning to slow down so I don't hit a bear crossing the road. Really dude!?! He claims I was doing 52(!!!) in a 35. I BEG to differ. Whatever. All is well that ends well and no ticket was issued.

Once we hiked over to the waterfall we saw a few folks swimming and felt inspired. We went back to the car to change and then hiked back up for a swim. Note: Jackson was SHOCKED that I wanted to do this. What can I say? 30 year olds don't have fear. 

The falls.

Me jumping in!

Our friends on shore snapped this photo for us.

Again.

The water was so clear and SO COLD.

Jackson snapped a photo of me talking to our new friends- two Navy guys stationed near the park. I was a little nervous about drowning and told them that if they stayed around I would feel safer. They obliged and were super nice kids. (I'm always amazed at how young these soldiers are. Goodness. They couldn't have been 19!) I am happy to say that we (fine, I) didn't need rescuing. I swear that swim cooled me down for the rest of the day!

The river along the park's road was so gorgeous.

The water was just so, so clear. We were obsessed.

"Let's get in here, too!" -Jackson

"NO!!!!" -Jenna

Love.

A riverside selfie. :)

I was so taken by the views. 

This sign cracked us up. Ice cream ahead! Note: it was $4.50 for an ice cream bar. We didn't buy one.

Check out that handsome boy. 

This is my "I'm too close to the edge and feeling some fear" face that I occasionally give to Jackson.

Jackson read about a hike online that was only "one mile" and had great views. This is how he sells me on things. Please know that this was MUCH MORE THAN A MILE! It was also nearly entirely uphill. Sigh. One day I'll learn to stop believing him about a hike's distance and steepness. 

I had to pee when we got to the hike and there was no one around, but we also didn't have toilet paper. Ack! Ever the clear thinker, Jackson dug out an old sock for me and I went right there in the wilderness. Yep. Quite the outdoor girl these days. 

The man who made me pee outdoors and wipe with an old (clean) sock. Yep. I don't have words. 

The hike ended up being pretty awesome (while still being tough). 

The Internet was right: the views from the top were 360 and amazing. 

We kept climbing on rocks to get a better view. The issue was we had to get down, too, and we'd climbed around so much that we lost the trail. 

I had visions of getting stuck up there and eaten by bears. Alas, we didn't. After a few minutes of panic we found the trail again and snapped this photo on the way down. Amazing. 

No hike would be complete without my husband "meditating" on a rock. What a weirdo. 

We left the park after our hike and headed to Dinuba, CA for the night. This was just a fruit farm area with like no good options. We ended up at Pizza Hut. Yep! After a long day of hiking, swimming and driving those wild roads the pizza tasted pretty good. Sequoia is next!!