Trip of Giants - Rest and Sunset Trails

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The chipmunks and squirrels are teasing me. They'll adopt a fantastic pose in a sunny spot, then just as I've got the camera ready and zoomed in, they scamper off. They'll then sit quite still in a shady spot just outside the zoom range of my camera, so the photo comes out blurry. But quantity compensates and I think I
've got a gew decent pics.

Today is to be a day of rest. But there's only so much rest we can stand. I opted to do another walk, on the Sunset Trail. This is a four hour walk on a hilly track through pine forest studded with rocky outcrops. Ne bears or mountain lions but a number of lizards skittered across the track (actually stopping and being very good posers) and I had an amusing time with a Douglas squirrel. It eyed me up from the trunk of a tree just 2 meters away (see pic). Every time it moved it would let out a humorous soft, high-pitched "Whoo". I got him on movie. Very handsome little Douglas.

So the Sunset trail, although I side-tracked to Viola Falls and Ellis Falls, was nothing as gerat as yesterday's walk. But it kept me busy - and worn out.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, Joseph and Liam were slowly driving Ky crazy. They've enjoyed stamping pennies. There are mechanical stamping machines that we've seen in most spots, where you can pay 50 cents and get a penny stamped. The machine at the Grant Grove Visitors Centre did a bear, a tree, a squirrel and a mountain range (the Sierras). So the boys have a small collection. If we'd thought of it, we could have been getting them everywhere - would make a neat souvenir set to get all the stamps on pennies.

Later on, dinner again at the Grant Grove Restaurant, and then the boys "helped" the Rangers start the fire for tonight's fireside talk. This one was on climate change and air pollution damaging the Sequoia National park. Ky says the presenter was no good, but Liam enjoyed it and came back to the cabin to tell me how the Joshua trees were dying out because they weren't getting enough rain.

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