California - Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Point Lobos

We got to see many beautiful and picturesque places when we took our Cali-moon (week and a half long road-trip honeymoon through California) and took many awesome pictures. We didn't get a whole lot of pictures from Sequoia & Kings Canyon due to the torrential rain the half a day we spent there, so I decided to combine that stay and the Point Lobos day trip we took into one blog post.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon

One of the awesome places we got to see on our Cali-moon was Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. It was a cold, wet evening when we got there so we got our stuff settled into our room at the John Muir Lodge - which had a fire roaring by the door to warm us up - and went exploring a little bit. We ate dinner at the Grant Grove Restaurant, which had an amazing bison burger, and thoroughly enjoyed the rustic mountain ambiance. After a long day on the road, it was really nice to sit down and eat in a quiet, beautiful place with really good food.

The next morning we woke up, went back to Grant Grove Restaurant and had breakfast, and then went exploring!

We hiked a little bit and drove to see the General Grant Tree.

This tree was seriously huge! It's the largest sequoia in the General Grant Grove section of the Kings Canyon National Forest and the second largest tree in the world! Standing at 267 feet tall and nearly 29 feet wide at the base it is a majestic sight to behold!

It started pouring shortly after we took this picture so we didn't get any more here, but we've already got this national park back on our "to visit" list - hopefully this year!

Point Lobos

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is definitely one of my favorite stops on our Cali-moon! It was more hiking than I thought it would be, but wasn't difficult by far. Every turn we took had breathtaking views like this one:

I particularly loved the trees there. They had so much personality to them... and they reminded me of The Lion King for some reason!

We had such a good time hiking around Cypress Grove Trail, talking to fellow explorers and just taking in the natural magnetism that comes from a place so perfectly preserved. We sat down on one of the many benches along the paths [mostly cause "the asthma" was acting up] and just watched the faces of the people passing us by. People watching has always been a hobby of mine, but seeing kids whose faces weren't in phones or tablets, but actively taking in everything around them, made my heart smile.

We visited one other spot in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve - Sea Lion Point! Being a southerner who grew up visiting Panama City Beach every summer, water just seems to call to me as much as cool trees do. I don't even know how long I made Chelsea stand there with me and just watch the waves go back and forth... I just know that when I finally moved, I felt more at peace than I had any time before.

Excuse the constant ponytail you'll see in every Cali-moon post. My hair was down to my behind at this point (grown out for the wedding) and it was just too much to deal with on our trip. LOL!

Overall, we greatly enjoyed our trips to both of these places and are anxiously awaiting returning there soon! If you're in the area, these are definitely places we'd recommend visiting!

Who knows what I was thinking at this point... I think I was just stoked to be there!