Hiking With Rattle Snakes in Sequoia

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Video of the Perfect Waterfall at King's Canyon

On leaving Las Vegas feeling somewhat financially violated, I was looking forward to getting back into nature for a little soul purification and a touch of reflection over our time away so far. We've now been on the road the long way round for 4 weeks but it really has passed quickly and we've had few real days alone to just chill for the moment and take stock.

Our hikes in the National Parks we're, I suppose, 'theraputic' in this respect, so on leaving Las Vegas, we decided to head North West towards San Francisco on a route that took us through Death Valley, Sequoia Forest and King's Canyon National Parks.

It was a strange feeling to reach Death Valley at dusk and find that the place was still baking hot! It's well below sea-level, a basin of hot sand in the middle of a desert. As we drove through, we had our hands dangling out the window to touch the heavy hot night air. It was so hot it felt like having our hands under a very, very warm hand dryer. I felt relieved that we had ended up there at night instead of mid afternoon, when I can only imagine it being full on sweltering. Praise be for AC in the car!

That night, we rested up in a town called Ridgecrest and the following morning, we set off to Sequoia National Park for a bit of lumber sized tree hugging action with the giant, indigionous Sequoia trees. The trees were really awesome and we were lucky enough to visit the strapping General Sherman, the biggest tree in the World. He is a massive tree, over 2,000 years old, 40ft in circumference and with branches the size of regular fully grown trees. After 15 minutes, the tree novelty wore off and at sunset, we took the long and winding road to Fresno to find some fast food and some lodging. We managed the former no bother - this is America after all; however, on asking the Pizza Hut waitress where the half decent motels were in Fresno, she gave us a shrug of the shoulders, a warning roll of her eyes and the advice: "You boys are in the bad side of town." Great news. At least the pizza was good. It was a relief to see that nobody had bumped The Beast from the car park but in honesty, the car is in such a nick after trying to get to the Grand Canyon that I doubt anyone would think twice about pinching her.

After unsuccessfully finding the "good side" of town, we reached the dilemma of continuing to drive the gauntlet of the dump that is Fresno or sleep the night in our dirty and dusty car. We opted for the latter, pulled up next to a sleepy Orange plantation and nodded off for the night. The following morning, I was woken by Trung revving the beast to take up back to the hills and in no time, we found ourselves in the unlikely situation of setting out on a hike at King's Canyon before 8am - hard to believe, I know.

This walk was bloody dangerous as the trail (to the ultimate end of a reputedly splendid waterfall) was also infested with Rattle Snakes! And it was too! Once we had equiped ourselves with some decent walking/snake beating sticks from the forest floor, we trepidly set off on red alert.

After a couple of miles, we came across our first snake, a long and skinny black thing (I think it was an Adder but i'm not Steve Irwin) slithering across the trail right in front of us. After following the river up through the canyon towards the waterfall, the trail veered upwards where we emerged on a sunny plateau of shiney granite boulders and a loud chorus of Rattle Snakes "singing" to us. At this point, I was half thinking: "to hell with the waterfall" but to our credit, we negotiated the pass and emerged at a really picturesque vista of the canyon valley. A little further on, we were rewarded further as we found the waterfall, a dramatic and beautiful cascade of relentless and crystal clear mountain water thrashing down over the shiney silver granite. On the way down, it got a little cooler, which got rid of the snakes and we happily made it back to the car with another National Park under the belt.

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Photos

Anxious Mother
This pic tells a tale. The car in front encountered these 2 and one other young deer and they were scattered and seperated. The mother is waiting to see if her young one is alright. They were reunited safely :)