Just before we got to the trail head we found a gas station.
 

Everyone needed gas but that's all you got here. Everything else was closed.

Gas was a whopping $4.47 a gallon!!!!

Lots of snow everywhere....the pumps were barely cleared.

Peg liked the moss on all of the trees but could not get a decent picture of it. Oh well......

"Mini-glacier" showing many snows over the winter that accumulated; hence the layering. (Bill is just there for scale...thanks, Bill)

Everyone had good intentions to hike to the giant sequoia trees in Tuolumne Grove and we all set off with purpose.

Woops, we don't have the right shoes for this hike. There is a lot of snow on the trail and it's slippery!

The first clue that the trail was not quite as accessible as the brochure stated (Paved with a marked nature trail.)

Guess we will let Peg go alone on this expedition and we'll get her later.  Everybody but Peg headed back to the cars.   To ensure we could come back to pick up Peg when she was ready, we made sure Peg had a Verizon telephone that could talk to Patty's Verizon telephone because Bill's AT&T telephone just didn't work in Yosemite.  Not once.  Cindy, Charles and the girls decided to visit Hetch Hetchy, while Bill, Patty and Tammy decided to take in more sights in the valley.

Peg's first glimpse of the sequoia grove which consisted of about 25 big trees interspersed with other very big conifers.

Giant Sequoias go up about 300 feet.  Can't seem to get it all on the camera!

Peg's backpack next to the trunk of a sequoia. Looks pretty puny. This tree was alive but had fire damage in the center of the trunk.

Suddenly, and to Peg's everlasting astonishment, Greg appeared behind the tree.   This event was never satisfactorily explained.

You can walk through Tunnel Tree without stooping, even with the 3 feet of snow on the trail.

Giant Sequoias live for upwards of 3,000 years.

The only problem trying to get different perspectives was that if you got off the beaten path, you sank to your knees in the snow.

The root system of a sequoia is extensive but fairly shallow.

This tree was probably around when the Egyptian pharaohs were in power.

The snow was melting and little streams were everywhere.

This is the only patch of the paved trail that Peg could find. However, that did not keep people
from coming to see the trees.  She met about 30 students on snowshoes during her "solitary" walk.

So much for solitude in the wilderness.

The hike to the Sequoias was all downhill in the snow.  The problem was, the trip back to the trail head was all uphill in the snow.  Peg was pooped.  This is what we found when we returned to pick her up.  And boy, was our timing perfect.  Bill's group arrived first and Cindy's group arrived about 45 seconds later.  Are we good, or what?

Peg was weary and famished.  She'd been working hard.  Luckily the trunk was full of food.

Tammy chows down too.

Peg gives some newcomers a few pointers about hiking in the snow.

I'm not sure, but I think she may have talked them out of making the trek.