A weekend with Giants (part 3)

***Warning, a very long post.***

Sleep was difficult to come by that night. My mind was awake, understandably. Situations like these are reasons why I am always thankful (always requesting) for two queen beds in the room as opposed to one large king bed. The husband was off to dreamland the minute his head hit the pillow. I was watching tv, lying awake in the dark, playing games in my tablet all night long. I saw the clock turn 4 am.

Sometime past 6 am, I got up and went to the toilet. On the way back to bed I went to the window and looked outside to see if there were signs of light snow overnight, which was on the forecast. Sadly, the ground was very dry. Clearly, nothing fell overnight. I went back to bed.

Housekeeping announcing themselves by trying to get into the room at 8 am (I checked the clock) woke me up. Good thing I bolted the door before I turned in the night before. I often forget to do this, not this time.

The housekeeping’s intrusion was so loud that there was no way we were getting back to sleep after that. We had an hour to go before breakfast date with our friends. The first thing my husband asked was if there was snow on the ground. I told him that I looked an hour ago and unfortunately we were not having a wintry experience, which meant we could take hikes after breakfast.

While mentally planning on the hikes in my head, I went back to the window and pulled the blinds to let light in.

Lo and behold! In the past hour, the snow was falling really hard it seemed. The ground was covered by it, inches of it. The trees were covered and the cars were holding snow too. Kids were throwing snow balls at each other. Older children were helping their parents “dig out” the car from “all” the snow that had fallen. Oh my goodness. How beautiful.

I grabbed the camera and started shooting through the glass on the window. Moments later our friends were coming out of the lodge and lugging things back to their car. It was going to be one heck of a winter day I thought.

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We lingered over breakfast, savoring the food and making plans - now that snow, and so much of it, has fallen our plans are definitely going to change. The very friendly server at dinner the night before also was working the breakfast shift. She told us about our need for chains, which we don't have, but apparently the gift shop attached to the restaurant and front desk/registry area carries them. We were thinking we'll wait out the snow before deciding to get chains. Our friends drive a 4-wheel drive, they did not need chains.

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We were gushing to our friends about the Panoramic Trail by the lodge that we took the previous evening. They wanted to see/take it as well. However, so much snow has closed that road that morning.

With the snow our options are limited to what trails are open. But first things first, our friends needed to gas up. The nearest gas station inside the park is by Hume Lake. It was going to be a fun drive I was sure of it.

The drive turned out to be understandably very slow, but very scenic. The route is pretty without snow, but with it, it was spectacular. So much snow was coming down that drive by shooting inside the car was not possible. Very slowly we arrived at Hume Lake. The snow was coming down really hard.

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Gassing up.

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Hume Lake.

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So much of it was falling. It's the flaky kind, so beautiful.

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Tasted good too. Photo used without our friends' permission :)

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We HAD to it!

On the drive back to the lodge, we encountered some delay. Three cars attempted to drive the road without chains and they did not have 4-wheel drive. They skidded and slid all over the place. We waited until they decided to return to Hume Lake and who knows wait out the snow? Buy chains? Who knows.

Seeing the fate of those three cars we knew we had to buy chains. Putting chains on your tires is a task I tell you.

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I didn't help, I just took photos.

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We weren't able to do anything else and the hour was getting late. We all had to get back to work the next day, so we decided to come down from the mountains and go back home. I was drive by shooting.

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Goodbye mountains, until we meet again.

OUR WORLD TUESDAY



Comments

  1. Gorgeous! And so peaceful. Haven't been to sequoia NP yet. Looks like you made the best of a hard weekend.

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  2. Really pretty! I still love snow even if I'm close to wishing for spring here. I'd like to see those giant trees one day.

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  3. What an awesomely beautiful place -- even the gray skies are perfect!! Love all of that snow!! Thanks for sharing the fun and the beauty!!

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  4. Awesome shots that make snow look delicious. I wonder if anyone ever froze halfway into a happy jump!

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  5. What an awesome trip! The snow looks beautiful. I am glad you bought the chains, better to be safe than sorry.. Lovely images, have a happy week!

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  6. Beautiful photos even (if I have had more than enough snow this year) ~ Glad you were going home safely and glad you had fun!

    Happy Week to you,
    artmusedog and carol

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  7. Beautiful winter shots and looks like fun. Glad you made it home safely,

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  8. playing and tasting snow, my first experience with snow in Canada coming from Tropical Borneo. Now, I don't like the snow.

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  9. What a series of beautiful pictures,covering snow everywhere...!Thanks for sharing ..!

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  10. So pretty - snow makes everything better! (Unless you're in Boston this winter.)

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  11. Love those flaky snow! This part of the world itz already summer and unbearably hot!

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  12. What an adventure. I'm glad you enjoyed the snow so much. When I was a kid in Utah, everybody had chains and we all learned how to install them. They were hard.

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  13. Wow it's just magical, gorgeous. Fun times ( except for the chain thing, I do remember how hard a job that was when we lived out west and had to do that a few times. ... A job for my husband of course I mean)!

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  14. Wow! Great, beautiful and fun photo series!

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  15. Love these joyful, fun shots.

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  16. Hi!It looks very cold. It's nice you enjoyed the driving in heavy snow day. How was the taste of snow? Thanks for sharing.

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  17. Wow i want to experience that too, but maybe not really in this lifetime. Even the starting summer temps in New Zealand is already cold for me, i wonder how i will feel under the snow. Oh i remember experiencing 6C in Sweden and windy that it really was difficult to stay outside. Hmm, but exciting and your photos really look fun.

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  18. The snow gave you an unusual day. A fine account of your adventure.

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  19. That's a lot of snow but it looks beautiful in your photos!

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  20. Something similar happened to us on a trip in Yosemite Park at New Year. Great pics and also drive by shots! And it still looked like a lot of fun together ... oh yeah the view of the lake is awesome, full of ambience of winter!

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  21. A great, atmospheric series of captures here. I do like those crazy patterns on the water and, of course, all the snow scenes. Thank you for sharing (and visiting my blog).

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  22. in this side of the world, you hardly see any flakes. :(
    spectacular doesn't even began to describe how nice your shots were.
    your photos made me long for Winter, which I know by now, everyone is looking forward to spring!!
    the last snow we've tasted was in Milan and the it was bitin!
    yes, we like to taste the flakes too. ^0^ hehe.
    it's just crazy how our weather has become lately.

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  23. in this side of the world, you hardly see any flakes. :(
    spectacular doesn't even began to describe how nice your shots were.
    your photos made me long for Winter, which I know by now, everyone is looking forward to spring!!
    the last snow we've tasted was in Milan and the it was bitin!
    yes, we like to taste the flakes too. ^0^ hehe.
    it's just crazy how our weather has become lately.

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