Having been home from Alaska for two full months, our travel feet were itchy for an adventure.
And having been inspired by Ken Burn’s PBS series on the National Parks (we did watch the whole series), it seemed time to return to a “local National Park”, the second oldest in the country: Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks.
We got up at 3am on Friday morning, bleary eyed but ready to beat the Los Angeles traffic heading north, which we did. We drove by downtown LA at 5am, still surprised to see the number of cars out at that time. Our minivan was set up just like we were going to Alaska, with our bed in the back ready for Patti to crawl in and sleep the first three hours while Dick drove. We switched just north of Bakersfield CA and Dick took a quick nap. We pulled into the park entrance at 9:00 and picked out a campsite by 10. We were ready to be with the big trees.
Dick’s first time in the park was in 1965, so he was reflective on the changes that he had seen over the intervening years. They have now restored the park to a more natural setting. This park was one that was in danger of being “loved to death”, with cabins and stores being built literally on the top of Sequoia shallow root systems.
We spent Friday mid-day with a picnic lunch near the Giant Grove with the General Sherman tree nearby, and then spent the next couple of hours hiking among the trees. Walking among the big trees is certainly an experience of being in a vertical world. The sheer mass of the sequoias distorted our sense of perspective. Limbs that looked close were actually over 100 feet up. The really big trees are referred to as monarchs, averaging over 250 feet tall and over 10 feet in diameter. General Sherman is 36 ft in diameter at its base and still 14 feet in diameter up 180 feet. That is a big tree trunk! It is the most massive living thing on earth. The feeling as we walked among these trees was like being in an immense, peaceful, natural cathedral.
Then we had a lovely walk along Crescent Meadow and saw beautiful aspen trees ablaze in fall colors. Of course, we got out our cameras and shot many photos (we each took about 400 photos in the two days.)
The short night caught up with us and we were back at our campsite, cooked and ate dinner, and went to bed by 7pm. Sleeping in the min-van continues to be a good plan, especially when we got up to frost some places on the ground.
Saturday October 31st…neither of us had ever spent Halloween camping before, but is was a picture perfect fall day.
We went to The General Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and both thought it was such a lovely grove of giant sequoias. There was one big tree after another, many in groups. We had the chance to watch a herd of mule deer for a long time, feeding among the big trees. We shared the moment with a family from Japan.
We were struck again about how truly huge these trees really are. The interpretive writers were obviously struggling with the challenge of communicating this size. The trunk of the General Grant tree was described as having the volume equal to that of millions of ping pong balls. They are as tall as a 27-story building, taller than the Statue of Liberty. Redwood trees are taller, but mass-wise, these are the largest growing thing s on the planet. And they live for 2-3000 years!
We descended down into Kings Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the country. Down, down we went, descending over 5000 feet. Lunch was a picnic beside Grizzly Falls, a charming waterfalls surround by fall colors. The canyon became more impressive the deeper into it we drove. John Muir wrote that this valley, at the bottom, was even grander than his beloved Yosemite Valley.
At Road’s End, just a few miles into the national park, we parked and then followed a delightful trail 2 miles to a fork in the valley. This valley and trail were so peaceful, so inspiring. We were alternating between deep forest and meadows, always surrounded by steep cliffs on either side. By mid-afternoon, the shadows were quickly lengthening, and we realized we needed to leave this magical pace and get back to our car and then campsite. The drive back was stunning again, including the sun setting over the foothills and the Central Valley while on the otherwise the nearly full moon was rising shining above the tress and the mountains. Wow!
Dinner was made after dark, with light provided by a battery and our plug in jack-o-lantern. Halloween was properly celebrated by a hooting of a genuine owl over the course of the evening. We spent several hours talking and snuggling by the campfire, until we reluctantly went to bed, having burned nearly all of our wood as the temperature dropped to nearly freezing!
Morning brought another perfect day, but we had to pack up and leave. Why? Because we had to get home to go to a marvelous concert in San Diego’s Symphony Hall. It was a special concert of Mariachi Music to commemorate the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos or All Souls' Day. It is a wonderful time to feel closer to those who have passed away. We so appreciate learning how other cultures respond to these important life experiences.
The adventure continues
We got up at 3am on Friday morning, bleary eyed but ready to beat the Los Angeles traffic heading north, which we did. We drove by downtown LA at 5am, still surprised to see the number of cars out at that time. Our minivan was set up just like we were going to Alaska, with our bed in the back ready for Patti to crawl in and sleep the first three hours while Dick drove. We switched just north of Bakersfield CA and Dick took a quick nap. We pulled into the park entrance at 9:00 and picked out a campsite by 10. We were ready to be with the big trees.
Dick’s first time in the park was in 1965, so he was reflective on the changes that he had seen over the intervening years. They have now restored the park to a more natural setting. This park was one that was in danger of being “loved to death”, with cabins and stores being built literally on the top of Sequoia shallow root systems.
We spent Friday mid-day with a picnic lunch near the Giant Grove with the General Sherman tree nearby, and then spent the next couple of hours hiking among the trees. Walking among the big trees is certainly an experience of being in a vertical world. The sheer mass of the sequoias distorted our sense of perspective. Limbs that looked close were actually over 100 feet up. The really big trees are referred to as monarchs, averaging over 250 feet tall and over 10 feet in diameter. General Sherman is 36 ft in diameter at its base and still 14 feet in diameter up 180 feet. That is a big tree trunk! It is the most massive living thing on earth. The feeling as we walked among these trees was like being in an immense, peaceful, natural cathedral.
Then we had a lovely walk along Crescent Meadow and saw beautiful aspen trees ablaze in fall colors. Of course, we got out our cameras and shot many photos (we each took about 400 photos in the two days.)
We went to The General Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and both thought it was such a lovely grove of giant sequoias. There was one big tree after another, many in groups. We had the chance to watch a herd of mule deer for a long time, feeding among the big trees. We shared the moment with a family from Japan.
We descended down into Kings Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the country. Down, down we went, descending over 5000 feet. Lunch was a picnic beside Grizzly Falls, a charming waterfalls surround by fall colors. The canyon became more impressive the deeper into it we drove. John Muir wrote that this valley, at the bottom, was even grander than his beloved Yosemite Valley.
At Road’s End, just a few miles into the national park, we parked and then followed a delightful trail 2 miles to a fork in the valley. This valley and trail were so peaceful, so inspiring. We were alternating between deep forest and meadows, always surrounded by steep cliffs on either side. By mid-afternoon, the shadows were quickly lengthening, and we realized we needed to leave this magical pace and get back to our car and then campsite. The drive back was stunning again, including the sun setting over the foothills and the Central Valley while on the otherwise the nearly full moon was rising shining above the tress and the mountains. Wow!
Dinner was made after dark, with light provided by a battery and our plug in jack-o-lantern. Halloween was properly celebrated by a hooting of a genuine owl over the course of the evening. We spent several hours talking and snuggling by the campfire, until we reluctantly went to bed, having burned nearly all of our wood as the temperature dropped to nearly freezing!
Dick was up at 5am and started driving. He drove until 8 when Patti got up and drove while he got a few more hours of well-deserved sleep. The morning brought us back into California and we were reminded what a long state we live in. The first mile post read 796 miles. We knew that was to the Mexican border just a short distance from our home. As the sun rose we were able to see Mt. Shasta begin to emerge from the darkness. It is a beautiful volcanic mountain that stands by itself in northern California.
We stopped for lunch, Patti took another nap, and we kept driving. We would drive over 850 miles in the day so we had to keep moving. As we drove we were struck at both how very, very dry and brown it is in CA, and how many cars there are. We had even a stronger view of the latter when we reached Los Angeles just in time for rush hour, being right by downtown LA at 5:50. There are a LOT of cars there. From LA, it is just 100 miles more to home. Some of that was very slow miles, though. It took us an hour to drive only 20 miles.
Once free of the Los Angeles county traffic we sailed along much more smoothly. The sun was setting and it was getting dark. We did have a glorious final day’s sunset to place another “beautiful” stamp on our trip. We could tell we had driven quite far south, it was getting dark by 8:00 rather than by 11:00.
At 8:30, we arrived at home. It was good to pull the car into the driveway of our home and find everything safe and sound there. Safe ourselves, tired, a little scruffy and ready for a night’s sleep (or more) in our very own comfortable bed, we unloaded the essentials for the night. We knew there was time in the morning to fully unload and clean up the car. One final step was to check the final milege total for our trip that we had been tracking on one of the car's trip odometers.
We did it! We drove to Alaska and back on the Alaskan Highway and lived to tell the tale. We still like each other, much to the surprise of many people we met who shuddered and said they would not attempt such a trip together. We are glad to be home. Hmmmm, where do we go next?
We got up early. There was a beautiful sunrise over Victoria Harbor. Dick went over and to try to get our flat tire patched, but it wasn’t possible before we had to go. So that must be the reason that he had been so insistent on getting a new, standard-size spare tire. That tire will get 1000 miles on it and the flat will be dealt with when we get home.
We then packed up and drove up the coast of Vancouver Island to the town of Sydney to take the ferry over to the state of Washington. Without a reservation, we wanted to make sure we made this ferry. There was a long line of cars and a 2 and 1/2 hour wait, but at last, the US customs team arrived, and we went through the custom’s process and boarded.
Dick totally enjoyed the ferry ride. We went through the San Juan Islands, beautiful islands on a gloriously clear day. For much of the trip we could see Mount Baker, a lovely huge mountain in Washington. There were many boats, both sail and motor. It was a great day to be out on the water. He also was highly entertained watching the jellyfish as our boat zoomed along through the water. 
There was a lot of camaraderie among those out on deck enjoying the day. Patti was too cold to be out in the wind, but enjoyed the view through the windows.
We came through Seattle at rush hour, riding in traffic for over 100 miles along the eastern side of the Puget Sound and decided that we saw more cars during that stretch than we had on our whole trip together so far. We did have many good views of Mt. Rainier which rises over 14,000 feet just a short distance to the east of the city.
A highlight for today was each of us were in Oregon for the first time. Part of the excitement of this trip for Dick was that he got to add his final two states that he had not yet visited: Alaska and Oregon. He has now been in all of them. We certainly didn’t get to have a full experience of it, mostly driving after dark. We did stop for a pleasant dinner at an Applebees. We plan to come back sometime and fully explore the beauty and history there. We drove completely across the state for 11 hours, but saw only what you can see from the freeway at night.
