California - Touring the Big National Paks - Spring - 1966

I went to swap meets and bought clothes and dress patterns.

Antique car costumes

I even tried to make a dress from one of the old patterns. Unsuccessfully. I was more successful with the first needlepoint that I desiged myself.

My first needlpoint

I also did research on the proper clothing for each year of the old Plymouths. I went to the library and copied pictures out of old Ladies Home Journals and other womens magazines of the era. I did a series of articles for the Plymouth magazine on the clothing trends in the 30s and early 40s. This is the 1931-1932 section of those articles.

31-32 clothing options

Description of the 1931-1932 clothing

In the March of 1966 we visited Sequ0ia National Park. Our two girls were age 4+ and 2.5

River at lower elevations

Because we were living on the northern California coast (fog but no snow - where we used the furnace every night and never needed air conditioning) it was always a total shock when we ventured inland where there were normal seasons. Sometimes in the summer it was shockingly hot. In this case it was way colder than we'd expected.

River in Sequoia

Petroglyphs

There was still a lot of snow here in March.

Snow covered cabins

In front of the Post Office

Making a snowman

Road

Snow

To deal with the large snow banks at high elevations, the entrance to the buldings is accessed trhough a big pipe.

Pipe entrance

Covered walkway

That means that it the entrance out to the road would be covered from the snow and wouldn't have to be shoveled out. There was still skiing in the park because there was a considerable snow pack on the ground.

Nuns watching skiing

We stayed in a cabin near Grant Grove and we had to go through snow tunnels that were over our heads to get to the cabin.

Our cabin

I remember that the only heat there was a wood stove. We had a bear come up on the porch and try to get into the cabin one night.

Inside the Fallen Monarch

Fallen Monarch Fallen sequoias are often hollowed out by fire but remain intact for many years. It's hard to take photos though (especially since 40 years ago there weren't any digital cameras) because it is really dark inside.

Looking out the end

General Lee and General Grant -- General Lee is one of the 40 named trees in the General Grant Grove. It's about the 12th largest. The General Grant is bigger - it is the 3rd largest.

Kids at the bottom of a giant sequoia

Top of Sequoias

A couple of weekends later, we also did a camping trip to Yosemite- me, my husband and the two girls. We had our VW bus and a tent that we rented from Special Services. We camped at North Pines campground,

Bob getting ready to put up the tent

I kept the food in the back of the VW and cooked on a Coleman camp stove.

Bob setting up the Coleman camp stove

VW at the camp site

Kids playing on a log in the campground

The tent is up

Trying out the tent

Ready for bed

The next morning we had breakfast

She's outraged because she wanted her cereal in a bowl and not a box

It was spring so the falls were in their full glory. Sometimes in the summer, they are only a trickle. We walked up the Mist Trail to see Vernal Falls.

Climbing the Mist Trail

Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail

Rainbow on the Mist Trail

At the top of the Mist Trail

The trail was wet from the mist.

Coming down the Mist Trail

On the way down, I slipped on the wet moss and fell forward down the trail. My oldest daughter was in front of me and I fell right on top of her, mashing her face into the rocks. She was skinned all down the front of her face - forehead, nose, upper lip and chin. But the worse was - her two front teeth were knocked loose and one was chipped.

Her scraped face

She was very brave and didn't cry much, but I felt really awful. The scabs healed eventually, but her front teeth turned black. Fortunately, they were her baby teeth and within a year or so she lost them and the permanent ones came in OK.

We went back to the campsite for lunch, and the children played in the river.

Playing in the river

Mule ride - Bob leading the mules

In the afternoon, we went up to the top of Sentinel Dome for great views of the park.

Sentinal Dome

There is a 360 degree view from the top.

Falls from Sentinal Dome

Falls from Sentinal Dome

We could can see Half Dome, and El Capitan.

Half Dome from Sentinal Dome

Valley from Sentinal Dome

Snowplant

Spring flowers

I took a couple photos of the iconic Jeffrey Pine. I thought it was a Bristlecone Pine but it turns out that the species is actually Pinus jeffreyi ,a species named in honor of its botanist documenter John Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Pine

This particular Pinus jeffreyi is a shorter example of the species. It is normally a large coniferous evergreen tree, reaching 82 to 131 ft tall (smaller when growing at or near tree line). It is similar to the ponderosa pine - the main difference is in the cones..

Carleton Watkins photographed it in 1867.

But the pine died in the severe drought of 1976-77, although people attempted to save it by bringing buckets of water to it.

The girls and i had another visit to Yosemite when my parents came to San Francisco for a conference in April