Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Washing my spirit clean: Three Rivers and the Sequoia National Forest

my sis
Anna, my niece
Nate, Pete's nephew
Nate & Anna playing in the river
gathering rocks from the river
Pete and the big trees
Anna and her mom, Bev (my sis)
In mid-August, I visited my favorite place in the world - the Sequoia National Forest, where the largest trees on the planet exist. I feel completely at peace here.  I knew that I wanted to share this special place with my niece, Anna, so I rented a cabin on the river in Three Rivers (just below the entrance to the national park),and invited Pete's family along too. The water in the river was the perfect temperature and so relaxing.  We played and swam in the river until sun down. We also gathered rocks (I brought a few of them home), and tried to skip rocks like my momma used to do (she was the best at rock skipping). At night, coyotes howled from the mountain tops, and in the morning, we were visited  by deer.

Anna hiked 5 miles of forest with us, though she had a few melt downs. Kids these days are not fit enough, which I always find somewhat annoying. (Come on kids, you’re supposed to have boundless energy).  I spotted a bear in a meadow from our car window, and we pulled over to check it out. Anna was  thrilled with the bear sighting. I'm hoping that'll stick in her brain rather than the memory of our "tortuous" hike. What is your favorite place in the world?

"Keep close to Nature's heart.. and break clear away once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." - John Muir

Outfit: vintage bathing suit (thrifted), safari hat from West Africa (Downtown LA Flea)

6 comments:

  1. I love rivers! I add this forest into my "future destinations" list now :) Hopefully me and my bf will do a tour in USA!

    I have 3 favorites so far, they are:

    1-Fethiye dead sea, aegean cost of my country, great sea for swimming (http://photostorms.blogspot.com/2013/02/fethiye-peaceful-break.html)

    2-Wolfgangsee in Austria, beatiful freezing lake :) http://photostorming.tumblr.com/post/40701900981/wolfgangsee-salzburg-austria-2011-for )

    3-Butterfly Valley in Turkey (there are lots of butterflies and turquoise sea)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, all your favorite spots sound mind blowing, especially Butterfly Valley in Turkey. Thanks for sharing.

      Delete
  2. You are right about kids not being fit; I, a forty-something, used to run up and down three flights of stairs carrying the garbage out from my body art studio without a problem (and I was certainly very far from being seriously "in shape") -yet I would routinely encounter teen-and-twenty-somethings who would hang off the third-floor newel post gasping for breath, having just essayed those same stairs with NOTHING in their hands! Now that's "un-fit!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds completely idyllic, you look so fricking fresh faced and beautiful. I need a week off in the woods xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. clearly you are not a mother. if you ask any mom past or present about having kids. she will tell you, kids have melt downs. especially when engaging in strenuous long term activity. we frown on child labour for a reason. plain and simple, kids now, in the past and long ago had melt downs and always will. it's probably a good thing you're not a mother.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails