Foiled by mother nature

When I left Los Angeles early this morning, traffic was light and the rain was gone.  It took me all morning to reach my only sightseeing destination of the day... Sequoia National Park.  Now, I knew there was a slight risk visiting this park at the tail end of winter.  The park is at a higher elevation, and there is always the chance of snow.  Sure enough, it snowed the night before, making the main park road hazardous...but not in the way I thought.

At the park entrance, I was told the road was closed due to downed trees.  They were in the process of removing trees that had fallen down due to heavy wet snow on their branches.  I was told to inquire at the visitor center for more information.  Since I was still using my annual park pass, it didn't cost me anything to enter the park, so I decided to play it by ear.  At the visitor center, I found out they were hoping to open the road sometime in the afternoon.  In the meantime, I decided to kill time by doing a couple of short hikes down to the Kaweah River.  Although I wasn't looking at sequoias, I still got some nice photos of the surrounding hills and the river canyon.

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After three hours of waiting, the road was still closed, so I decided the call it a day.  Before leaving I bought a couple of items from the park's gift shop.  I noticed they had some Sequoia National Park sew-on patches.  It brought memories of my childhood when we used to visit national parks and buy such patches.  My mom would then sew them on jackets for me and my sister.  Of course, the two of us would try not to get the same patch.  It's amazing how much more detailed the patches are nowadays...and more expensive.  No, I didn't buy a patch...I don't wear such stuff anymore.  On the other hand, if there should ever be a Five For Fighting patch...