Tharps Log

Thursday throwback taste of my life:

Writing some segments for our family foundations/legacy book today.  My Facebook feed prompted my writing when a cousin posted a picture of a fallen tree. Rains are pelting California and Oregon right now and the amount of water was just too much for the old tree with shallow roots.  It was a huge Sequoia tree in Calavaras County that was a tourist attraction.  It had a cut out in the bottom of the living tree, that you could drive a car thru! I'm sure my mom still has a picture, somewhere, of us when we visited there. I was there, with my family as a youngster, but what it reminded me of was another fallen tree in Sequoia National Park. 

I have an old photo taken in July 1959 of that tree--called Tharpes Log--with my mom and my aunt sitting on a log fence in front of the "residence" made of another huge Sequoia tree.  The photo is quite old, and you will need to look closely to see the constructed portion with a rock fireplace behind my mom.  It's butted up to the base of the fallen tree.  I have been in that summer grazing land shelter and found it fascinating!  It reminded me of all the happy hours we spent as a family, camping in the summer, and exploring the National Parks.  For the rest of the story, you will have to wait for the book to be finished!  

Thanks for visiting today!      

Throwback Thursday - Vacation

When I was a girl--a long, long time ago--my dad would take us on a vacation every year. That's me with my mom and sister!  We looked forward to our two week summer vacation.  Every night for weeks, it seemed to this little girl with tons of vacation anticipation, Dad poured over maps and travel journals before we went. I loved those vacations, but I will not go into them here in this format, (actually I am writing about my life in a legacy book for my children--you can read about our vacations in there, someday).

Regardless of our long vacations, I think my favorites were the mini-vacations we took several times on summer weekends to Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada. The park was only a little over an hour from our home, so it afforded us a quick jaunt to get there and set up our campsite for our weekend trips.

My sister and I played in the river, (that's me peering into the water, either looking for fish or getting a drink---I don't know!) We hiked with mom and dad, tried fishing with a hook on a string, collected branches with curly moss on them, and in general marveled at the big trees.

I think I was a little "miffed" in this picture, again, I don't know! :) The trees were standing like this one, the General Sherman, and toppled like this one my mom is standing in front of:

I think these weekends set a love of nature deep in the soul of this 'up-to-this-time' city girl. I have never been the same since.  In my thirties, we lived in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada for several years, raising our family; and I swear, you will never get the country life (mountain life) out of this girl again!

If you would like information on the park, I'm sure it is readily available on the internet and I will not duplicate it here.  But what you cannot get elsewhere on the internet is a little girl's experience in Sequoia National Park--my favorite vacation place!  So, I thought you might enjoy some "throwback Thursday" photos of my years in the park.

Sometimes we camped out and sometimes we rented small sleeping cabins, and we even visited in winter!

The old homestead corral at Crescent Meadow 

Would love to go back, sometime soon! 

 Love Sequoia Park!
P.S.  this is a Challenge Post for my favorite Etsy Team, the Blogging Business Artisans!  See other posts about vacations here.