The Red Center Day 3

Monday, May 25th

Our last day on the trip! We got to "sleep in" half an hour and get up at 5:30am. We went to King's Canyon and did the 6km rim walk, got to see sun rise from the top and the mist lift off the mountains. Apparently a canyon is formed from tectonic plate movement and a gorge is formed by erosion. We saw some ghost gum trees (a gum is the common term for a eucalyptus tree here) that pull zinc out of the soil and use it in their bark to protect themselves from the sun. We hiked to the Garden of Eden which has water holes year round (the middle purple shale layer of rock is impervious and keeps water close to the surface). Hannah waded in but decided against jumping in with all her clothes on (again). The whole thing was pretty spectacular.
Upon getting back to Alice the group went out to Annie's again. Sadly Fabi couldn't go to Bo's because there were peanut shells on the floor and she is deathly allergic so we couldn't bust out our line dance moves. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone (thank goodness for Facebook!). hannah and I are the only ones sticking around Alice for more than a night, but we are starting to gear up for a whole new adventure on the East Coast!