For all posts related to our adventure see tag Big Trees 2016. Photos from our trip can be found in our Google photo album, Trip to Big Trees
On our drive home we went up the mountain, past Lake Alpine, over the pass. We left the park at 7:30 am, and until we reached Hwy. 80 around 10 am, we passed maybe five other cars. It was beautiful, scenic, and geologically interesting. Every 20-30 minutes or so the rocks changed and the variety of trees/foliage changed as well.
The boys diligently noted every “Road Closed” gate we went past, many of the roads along the pass are closed in the winter.
We drove through Markleeville (bonus points to them for having relatively clean public porta-potties outside the Chamber of Commerce/Tourist Info building), and on to Kirkwood and Lake Kirkwood. 
We drove down to a parking area near the lake, got out and walked around a little. Gavin shared fond memories of skiing, hiking, camping and fishing around the Kirkwood and Lake Kirkwood area. The boys were slightly annoyed we didn’t stay longer, but we wanted to get through Sacramento before traffic picked up.
The exact details of where we drove after Kirkwood are hazy, I was driving and Gavin was giving directions. We drove through the southern portion of Sacramento, Davis, and finally picked up hwy. 12 and hwy. 116 to get back to Sebastopol.
We’ve kept the binder of printouts, brochures and information for when we make a return trip. Over all it was fun and memorable, we had a wonderful time, and look forward to returning some day — there is a lot of California (and the wider world) we’d like to explore.
