Ted and I went to Sequoia and King's Canyon for a couple of days and saw a few of these black bears,

 Lots of these giant Sequoia trees, with perfect fall weather and very few people.

Ted and I both remember being in Sequoia when we were kids, but neither of us remember King's Canyon.

The drive there was spectacular,  it took us 3 hours to drive 37 miles because we kept stopping to enjoy the landscape.

The park ranger told us these were oak trees,  we'd never seen any like this before.

Of course, I never stop looking at pattern and texture

This is granite on one of the mountain walls we drove by.  I came to a screeching halt to see this.

This time of year there is no place to stay in King's Canyon unless you camp, which we don't, so we drove back to Sequoia the same day.

I had finished a piece just before we left that I think put me in the mood to see these fall colors.

Now we're back waiting for the first grandchild to arrive, sometime around Thanksgiving.