On the evening of June 3 our Visit Visalia hosts took us to a Single A minor league baseball game, where the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks affiliate) defeated the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels affiliate) 2-1.
Visalia mascot:
This lady umpire was busy around the bases.
Single A games have only 2 umpires. Her position in the pic is with a runner on first base. She would be more between second and third with a runner on second and directly behind first base with no one on. I asked, and learned that AA and AAA games have 3 umpires.
Valley Strong Ballpark has a quirky design with several separated sections of seats, totaling 2,500.
The other 7 California League ballparks seat at least 4,000. I’m still trying to get the details of how Visalia survived the 2021 contraction where a quarter of minor league teams folded.
Several activities were offered for June 4, including an architecture and agriculture tour, fly fishing and a trail ride with Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls. We chose to ride in the vans again with Daniel to Kings Canyon.
Nearly all of the national park tourists just visit the sequoias. Grant Grove was the first section to be protected; the actual Kings Canyon was not included until 1965. The road descends from Grant Grove at 6,200 feet to the Kings River at 3,000. The canyon is steep, narrow and V-shaped on the descent.
When the road reaches the river, the valley widens and flattens, an obvious end of its ice age glacier. We drove 14 miles up the canyon to the Zumwalt Meadows trailhead about a mile from the end of the road at 5,000 feet.
Cliffs are 3,500 feet above us.
We hiked 1.7 miles downriver, starting with this bridge crossing.
View from bridge:
Where the river drops out of view in the pic above are some intense rapids.
Lower down is a burn area.
Logjam from peak runoff:
Some quieter water:
Once in awhile there would be huge boulders that broke off the cliffs above.
We ended up at Roaring River Falls.
I was poised for video if this guy decided to jump.
But consequences were high if you got swept downstream.
I relaxed in the cool breeze for awhile, then moved on.
Lower Roaring River before it joins the Kings:
On the way out of Kings Canyon we stopped at a viewpoint. Upstream:
Cliffs on north side:
Downstream and zoom:
The Kings drains all the way back to the Sierra Crest. It’s clearly dangerous in the national park. The commercial whitewater downstream but above Pine Flat Reservoir is high volume, currently over 3,000cfs, but lesser gradient so only Class III.
Kings Canyon was much quieter than Sequoia and is thus a good place for camping. One of my coworkers at Transamerica used to camp there with his family for a week every summer.
Visalia mascot:
This lady umpire was busy around the bases.
Single A games have only 2 umpires. Her position in the pic is with a runner on first base. She would be more between second and third with a runner on second and directly behind first base with no one on. I asked, and learned that AA and AAA games have 3 umpires.
Valley Strong Ballpark has a quirky design with several separated sections of seats, totaling 2,500.
The other 7 California League ballparks seat at least 4,000. I’m still trying to get the details of how Visalia survived the 2021 contraction where a quarter of minor league teams folded.
Several activities were offered for June 4, including an architecture and agriculture tour, fly fishing and a trail ride with Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls. We chose to ride in the vans again with Daniel to Kings Canyon.
Nearly all of the national park tourists just visit the sequoias. Grant Grove was the first section to be protected; the actual Kings Canyon was not included until 1965. The road descends from Grant Grove at 6,200 feet to the Kings River at 3,000. The canyon is steep, narrow and V-shaped on the descent.
When the road reaches the river, the valley widens and flattens, an obvious end of its ice age glacier. We drove 14 miles up the canyon to the Zumwalt Meadows trailhead about a mile from the end of the road at 5,000 feet.
Cliffs are 3,500 feet above us.
We hiked 1.7 miles downriver, starting with this bridge crossing.
View from bridge:
Where the river drops out of view in the pic above are some intense rapids.
Lower down is a burn area.
Logjam from peak runoff:
Some quieter water:
Once in awhile there would be huge boulders that broke off the cliffs above.
We ended up at Roaring River Falls.
I was poised for video if this guy decided to jump.
But consequences were high if you got swept downstream.
I relaxed in the cool breeze for awhile, then moved on.
Lower Roaring River before it joins the Kings:
On the way out of Kings Canyon we stopped at a viewpoint. Upstream:
Cliffs on north side:
Downstream and zoom:
The Kings drains all the way back to the Sierra Crest. It’s clearly dangerous in the national park. The commercial whitewater downstream but above Pine Flat Reservoir is high volume, currently over 3,000cfs, but lesser gradient so only Class III.
Kings Canyon was much quieter than Sequoia and is thus a good place for camping. One of my coworkers at Transamerica used to camp there with his family for a week every summer.