Kings Canyon Day 2

Much nicer day Tuesday in Kings Canyon, bright, sunny and warm. Realized that the part I was in yesterday is a part of Sequoia. Kings Canyon is at the very end of of the road. Kings Canyon is an even deeper valley than the front of the park. The cliffs rise sharply in a very narrow valley that millennia ago was a glacier. There are miles of rapids and some some falls, Grizzly and Roaring River, on the drive in, but I decided to take a deeper look into the valley. So I took a nine mile hike to Mist Falls. It really made to rest of the park look a little tame. Off the main trail I moved into a side gorge. I saw a couple looking at two bears about 50 yard off. They were just wrestling at first then it got a little rougher. Kinda like my brother Donald and I when we were young. It always started out with laughs, then….  Two miles, or so, in the rapids became cascading falls for the rest of the hike. It was an elevations gain of 900 feet over uneven ground for the trek. I was tired and my feet were sore, but Mist Falls was well worth the time.  It cascades down the falls which then drops about 100 feet to even more cascades. And it was, to use one word, misty. On my way back I was on the trail, that was cut through a boulder field. When just as I getting to step a three foot long black snake crawled across my path. SCARED THE CRAP out of me. Now I’m not afraid of snakes, unless then suddenly snake across my hike. I did an impression of a football player running through tires while trying to play Dance, Dance Revolution. 30 minutes later I came upon another bear about 30 yards away. I stopped. Then I went to change camera lens to get a close up when the bear turned and looked right at me. We were both motionless for at least 10 seconds. Then he turned away, walked, then started running away from me. I am just that intimidating. The whole hike took four hours total, but it was incredibly enjoyable. I am just surprised and glad that today that I’m not sore and my feet don’t hurt. (click photo for slideshow)