Trip to Nevada & Donner's pass & surrounding areas

The day and drive started out this blue both days we made drives.
They both ended up part way through looking like this. Sure glad we do not have to live in this mess. This was on the 80 through the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The storm looming in the distance.
This is for Jackie as she loves clouds. But you can see we had dry roads here.
The sun seen through the clouds.

A look across the area and an old barn that may not be around much longer.
looks like the storm is coming in-we were in and out of it all day.
As you can see there is still a lot of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
an area that winter is slowly loosing its grip-creating neat water falls.

A nice field of flowers with and added "attraction'.
This is from our dash. As you can see the weather was all over the place.

The dark line is really a railroad snow shed- see the sign below.


Jerry's house and his outhouse is below, nicely decorated.

We saw these gallows in one of the towns we investigated on our drive. They were only used once and hanging was outlawed in CA.
Beautiful flowers are everywhere.

One lane bridge in this small town on our journey- no coach to cross this one.
Ice or sleet on the window shows the type of weather we were in and out of May 21st.
The Donner party sign and monument below the sign.
Bil wanted to go to Donner Pass--for lunch-- he said something about "finger-food"; I said over my dead body. his response, "ok". he later thought a 'rump roast" might be tasty as well. But seriously there is a lot of history here and we spend the day getting there and enjoying the museum/park and trip.
Donner Lake and the area below the ski areas.
The girl in this was one of the people who lived through the fateful time.

The upper side of the giant Sequoias out of Fresno

Bil in front of one of the giants
A meadow offered the viewing of twin baby bears and their mother.
Mama bear checking to see where here offspring have gone-just like little kids.

The twins were playing around this little tree.
Bil & Barb in front of the California tree- the trees used to be named for the various states.
Winter is slowly loosing it's grip on the land and there are many water falls and creeks. They sound wonderful as you walk past them.
a couple of views across the valley

the General Grant tree

This is a one way street due to the closeness of the trees.
This is a slab polished smooth to show the rings.
A stand of large trees-there were many like this in the forest, notice how small the man looks.
These two photos are carvings that were along the road in one of the towns.


one of the many waterfalls due to the melting snow
the sights were magnificent across the valley
one of the trees that previously burnt has an opening for people to walk into
this was an unusual log as it was the only red one
This is the General Sherman tree- it is the one with the largest volume on earth. It has 52,500 cubic ft.

This tree is hollow inside due to various fires. As long as there is any "flesh" left on the trees they will keep growing and can even heal themselves in time.
This log was across the trail so was hollowed out for passage.
The back sides of the trees have a lot of moss growing on them due to lack of sun.
The visitor center is still under or surrounded by a lot of snow.
This was an old root system that has rotted out or been hollowed out and left as a passage. One of the signs said that due to the weather and type of wood it takes years to rot out.

Heading out again-Bakersfield & the Sequoias

The next two are the night sky in Rancho Jurupa before leaving for another summer adventure.
this one was without the flash
Bil saying good bye to Billy goose-he has been in the park for the last 4 years and may be taken away as he bit a lady who complained. He has been Bil's friend following him around and coming to our door honking until Bil or I went out and petted and talked to him Then he would lay down and sleep on our mat or wander off whit his female friend Hillary.
This is out 138-it looks like the train was swallowed up buy the road at the underpass.
This was the road through the mountains to get to the park, sure glad we left the coach in Bakersfield and took the car.
The road into the sequoias-not sure at this point if the road we wanted would be open, but we forged on to see whatever we could see.
This was the top part of a walk I took to the water below. It was steep but very pretty.
Some of the pretty flowers we saw along the way. These were on the way down the stairs in the previous photo.
Appears winter is still with us, but the day was beautiful and warm.
This child was climbing on one of the fallen giants.
If you enlarge this photo of the roots you can see a child at the top. These were the roots of the fallen giant above.

out the car window-what a lovely display of flowers our Lord has provided for us to see
one of the many giants we saw in the park
a wonderful waterfall - there were many along the way -winter is lessening it's grip on the area.
Bil and one of the giants--and yes that is snow he is in while wearing his winter shorts.
These trees really make you feel very small.