A Reunion... (of sorts)

This is the three of us (my sister, my brother and me) 60 years ago outside our house in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.  Then, we were called Catherine, Richard and Joseph.  The family's 1941 Ford at the right.

This is the three of us 60 years later this year in Visalia, California.  Now we are known as Joe, Cathy and Rich.  It was a happy reunion.  We hadn't been together for about 10 years (since our dad died).

Because Cathy lives near Sequioa National Park, we decided to go visit General Sherman.  On the way up to the park, we stopped in at Three Rivers on the Kaweah River to stroll through the historical museum.  Later, we stopped and ate lunch along the river.  Very picturesque.

After getting into Sequoia Park, we stopped at Hospital Rock, saw some huge and racous

 ravens... 

... and a black bear coming up the hill toward us.  We stayed there only long enough to snap a

 couple of pictures and then we got out of there.

(Yeah, yeah.  I know it's "brown" but technically speaking brown bears are also known as grizzly bears and black bears can also be brown in color.  This one is not a grizzly.)

Hospital Rock (don't know why it is called that) is a picnic area with a short trail that leads to the middle fork of the Kaweah River.  At the end of the trail is a waterfall of cascading water over some rocks with spectauliar colors.  This one reminds me of an ice cream sundae with caramel topping.

At one time in history, the western Mono tribe lived in this area.  Evidence of their existence is shown in the pictographs painted on the rock. You can see the red markings on the rock at the right but a close-up view below shows the markings better.

There are some much smaller waterfalls in this area as shown here.

After leaving Hospital Rock we continued on to see General Sherman, a giant sequioa tree of 52,500 cubic feet.  It holds the title 0f the world's largest living organism (measured in volume).  It stands 275 feet tall and the trunk alone is estmated to weight 1,800 tons.

Did we mention that General Sherman is at the 6,600 foot level.  It was cold in March with lots of snow and icicles.

And here are three more giant sequoias at the General Sherman visitor center.

A panoramica view of the road coming down from General Sherman.  Still some snow along the side at the 4,000 foot level.

Had to the the obligatory picture at Amphitheater Point with Moro Rock (6,725 feet) rising in the background.  Check out the web site below for a 360 degree panoramic view from this point.

http://virtualguidebooks.com/CentralCalif/SequoiaKings/KaweahRiver/AmphitheaterPointL.html

And thanks to both Irv and Cathy (and Quentin) for their hospitality and letting us have a fun week with them.