Sequoia National Park, big trees and fun alpine driving...

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Second blog of the trip...I'm already running late, but trust me, it's only going to go worst! Smile!



We left Bakersfield north to the Sequoia National Park. This is a first for me. The idea is to do a huge loop around the park before driving to LA before night fall. I stopped at the Ranger Station to find out we don't actually need the pass to go into the park with our itinerary. I wanted to buy the yearly pass covering all National Parks. We'll need it later on, and it's only 80usd for everybody in the car. Sadly they run out of them more than 2 weeks ago.



The ranger told us, the place to stop and walk is the Trail of 100 Giants. We did and spend some pretty cool time there. There is not many cars on the road, but here we find a small crowd....we'll, we are still in the middle of nowhere. The trees are true giants. Sadly, there are lots of them on the ground too. I have no idea if these logs have been there for long or not...and if this is storm related or not.



The best part of the park was simply to drive around it. They call this alpine driving. In some areas, you don't have a straight path of over 100 meters. This is not a place for sick children sitting in the back of the car...sick they will be, big time! I'm not really sure Tanya felt very secure with the exercise...I love when she asked me to drive slower...but, I don't understand, we have an average speed below 40km per hour! Smile! Sadly, there are not that many places to stop for pictures once you are on top there. The elevation went pretty steadily from 2000 feet to over 6000 feet....that an altitude of 2000 meters for my European friends.



The South of Sequoia has way less trees around, and the temperature was rising fast. We have made a rule that we could be safer with the roof closed and air conditioning once the temperature reach 100 Fahrenheit! That already a cool 38 Celsius. Yesterday on the drive, it went up to a breezy 106F, just over 40 degrees....and it will get warmer in the coming days!



The Mustang is the perfect bird for this adventure. Roof is down, music is on....and that engine when it goes from 10km per hour to over 60 in seconds, just magic!



We made it to Los Angeles before sunset! That's my daily aim, reaching our hotel during day light. This time, we will be staying near the Old Town of Pasadena...a first for me, but an obvious choice....room rates are lower and we didn't have to go across the huge traffic jams, the famous ones of LA after a long day on the road.



I'm truly happy to have experienced Sequoia. It was that or spend the day at Universals....I know some of you may laugh reading this sentence. Sadly, we didn't see any bear, but bear and Mustang for sure don't go together....and trust me, I'm driving safely....that little car has a lot more to go! Next blog...soon!

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