Babymoon and Sequoia

A bit over a week ago Torrey and I got out of town for the weekend for one last little vacation together alone before the baby comes. We spent two nights in a little cabin at a place called Wonder Valley Ranch Resort, in the foothills of the Sierras above Fresno.

Torrey's favorite part of the weekend was visiting the horses.


They did have some very beautiful horses.


We both wanted to go for a ride, but since we didn't want to have the baby quite yet, we decided just to visit. Besides, a dusty trail ride is not quite what either of us really wanted. I really wish I could have taken Torrey up to Half Moon before it closed down.

One of my favorite parts of Wonder Valley was canoeing around their pond. It wasn't a very big body of water, but even so I had a good time, especially since it has been such a long time since I was in a canoe.


Here is a 3D shot I took by the pond. Click here for a larger image.


Sunday morning we left the ranch to make our way home through Sequoia National Park.


It was my first visit to the park, and I thoroughly enjoyed the very impressive trees scattered throughout the forest.


Part of our lunch was a huge quantity of strawberries that we picked up at a roadside stand down in the valley. Delicious!


There is a spot called Morro Rock, where a long staircase leads to an awesome lookout point.


The views from the rock were amazing, even though it was a cloudy day.


After our conquest of Morro Rock, I took Torrey on a longer hike up a closed road. We kept meeting people that told us there were bears in the meadow at the end of the road, and I wanted to see them. Torrey insisted she was fine all along the way, but in the end was quite exhausted from the work of dragging her pregnant belly all over the park. Unfortunately the bears were gone by the time we got to the meadow at the end of the road.


We did see a mother bear and her cub later though, when they crossed the road in front of us. Torrey was relieved that we got to see them from the safety of our car instead of in the middle of a meadow in the wilderness.