Camping adventure in King's Canyon

We got adventurous and went for a camping trip in King's Canyon National Park, which is about two hours east of Fresno. It's a beautiful Yosemite-like place, full of deep canyons, sheer granite walls, and the raging south fork of the King's River.

There were too many pictures from the trip to put up here, so I made an album at Snapfish. (Note, this link was broken, but should be fixed now.)

We stayed at Aunt Lynn's house on the way there and back to split up the driving. It's a total of about six hours from our house to the park, and we thought that would be too long for Aria to ride in the car. (We were right. Three hours at a time was definitely the limit of her tolerance.)

We had a very interesting trip, marked with several ups and downs. On the up side, we saw lots of beautiful country, relaxed, enjoyed the typical camp stuff like roasting dogs and S'Mores on the campfire - and we even got a hike in, thanks to the kid carrier backpack we got. Aria really enjoyed being outside for the most part - especially in the backpack. We had a lot of good times on the trip, and the pictures speak for themselves on that side of the coin.

On the down side, it was tough to keep her entertained since there was nowhere we could let her crawl around except for in the tent. And, both Hosanna and I definitely felt the most trapped since we had her. We both wanted to go on big hikes and really explore the area, but we were obviously very limited in what we could attempt. On more than one occasion we were ready to go out on a hike just when Aria decided it was nap time, or eating time, or time to hate being in the backpack, etc. On the one hand, it was awesome to be out of the house and hang out somewhere so beautiful. But on the other hand it was depressing being out there without being able to trek off into the mountains, get a really good workout and score the beautiful views. (Kathy and Adamen and our friend Heather were with us too, and they took off nearly every day for some crazy hike or another - and man did we wish we could go with them...)

We were well-prepared with the usual things we need when we take Aria travelling, but weren't as well-prepared with our camping gear as we used to be. Out of practice, I guess.

Next time, we will try a place a little closer to home so we don't have as much travel time.

Also, we learned to always put on sunblock and insect repellant no matter whether we think we'll need them or not before going on a hike. Our one good hike day was almost spoiled because we were mobbed by mosquitoes the first time we hit the trail. Our poor little girl got several bites on her head. :( And the trail that we thought was entirely in the shade turned out to be in the blistering heat for about fifteen minutes.

Oh yes - and make sure you get enough gas before you go into the park, lest you get gouged for $4.30 a gallon at the King's Canyon lodge, by the grumpy guy who is not at all proud to show you the oldest gasoline pumps in the United States.