In Tulare County, where I grew up and (except for a few misguided college years) have always lived, “Park” is often said with a capital “P” and means “National Park”. Maybe not for all flatlanders, but definitely for those of us in the foothills, particularly in Three Rivers.

A week or so ago, I made a quick trip to Wilsonia to deliver books to Neal Mixter, who will be selling them in Wilsonia.

My 21-year-old neighbor couldn’t remember ever driving through Sequoia to get to Kings Canyon, so we headed up together.

Like many folks, she wasn’t aware of Wilsonia until I began my book. Not that my book has made people outside of my circle aware – but that folks blow past this community of a collection of wonderful cabins without any inkling that it is there.

I recently finished this oil painting of The Four Guardsmen, so was really interested to see these giants in person.

It was morning, and the light was nice. No one was behind us, so I did that stupid tourist thing and stopped right in the middle of the road for a few photos. Obviously in my painting I have done a fair amount of logging and pruning and brightening up. The painting is actually from the other side , heading downhill.

These three orderly trees are just as you get to the museum. A photographer friend calls them “The Three Graces”; I have no idea if this is an official designation or not.

There were a few dogwood blossoms still hanging on near the General Grant Tree.

The old general is still looking strong. (Has anyone else noticed that in all the new signs he is simply referred to as “The Grant Tree”? Who stripped him of his title and why?) In two days, on Saturday, June 20, there will be a dedication of this giant sequoia as “a living shrine”. Sounds ceremonial and symbolic. The bigwigs involved in the dedication ceremony will have lunch at the Wilsonia clubhouse after their formalities. I wonder if I should be there to peddle my book. . . nah. They might ask me why I didn’t include any Park cabins and I would feel like a schmuck telling them the truth – “Because you all don’t maintain them and because they would have taken up too much space and not added sales to the book”. (Why does the truth make a person feel schmucky??)

Oh WOW! I’ve never seen wild iris in yellow before! It is so interesting to me to find new wildflowers and so interesting to realize that Sequoia and Kings Canyon don’t have all the same flora.

Such a fabulous day of clear views of the spectacular canyons of the Kings Rivers. I couldn’t remember which fork was which, but my neighbor was impressed anyway. We headed down toward Cedar Grove just to where she could see the river. The Kings makes the Kaweah look like a weenie little creek. Then it POURED on us!

On the way back down, we chose to complete the loop by going down 180 to 245 and then taking Hogback to Dry Creek Road. I remembered seeing Bachelor Buttons along Hogback and wondering about them several years ago. YEA! They were in bloom there again. Weird. These are not natives. Such a great color of blue!