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Our final morning in Yosemite we awoke to gathering clouds. Fortunately, once again, we got the tent down and packed away before the rain started. From Yosemite we were heading south to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. We had hoped that we would be able to drive through or around the weather and for the most part we did. We weren’t quite sure what to expect from this National Park. We expected the sequoia part of it to have big trees but the Kings Canyon bit of it was a complete unknown. I was aware that there are 2 entrances to the park but there was a chance that the Kings Canyon entrance road may be closed due to snow so we headed for the south entrance into the Sequoia part of the park.
We arrived at the entrance gate and were greeted with relatively pleasant weather. We were then surprised to find out that the campground we had planned on staying at - Lodgepole Campground - was open but covered in 3 feet of snow. This is due to its altitude. The park as a whole has a drastic elevation change with the lower parts being around 2000ft
above sea level and the higher parts reaching upward of 14000ft (that’s higher than the Rocky’s). Having had our fair share of snow by now we opted to go to one of the campgrounds lower down in the park. At the first one we pulled into we were glad to see no signs of snow but the warning sign stating that there had been 2 bear incidents in the campground in the last week was a little bit off putting to say the least. We thought it best to head for another campground. To our exceeding joy the next campground we looked at had no snow nor any bear incident warnings. There were however bear boxes for food storage at all the campsites. This was pretty unexpected for us as we thought once we left Yellowstone and Yosemite we would be leaving the bears behind too, obviously not.
With our campsite set up and just about everything we had safely stored in the bear box we went off to explore the Sequoia part of the national park. We decided to leave the Kings Canyon part for the next day due to the relatively low cloud coverage in the hopes
that the next day would give us better views. The Sequoia National Park is home to thousands of massive sequoia trees (hence the parks name). It is similar in a way to the Mariposa grove in Yosemite only there are a lot more trees. It is also home to the General Sherman tree. This is the biggest tree in the world - by volume. After winding our way up the hill and up into the snow we arrived at the parking lot for the General Sherman tree. A short walk in the snow and fog and we suddenly stumbled across the tree. To be honest I couldn’t say if it is the biggest in world or not. You can’t get right up to it due to the potential damage you may cause and I think the symmetry and shape of the tree go a long way in disguising its vastness. Don’t get me wrong, it is a massive tree, it would cover 3 lanes on a freeway but there comes a point where you just can’t grasp the sheer enormity of it and also over the last week or so we have been fortunate enough to see loads of big
trees. With the “World’s biggest tree” block checked and the weather closing in we beat a hasty retreat back down the hill and to the relative comfort of our tent and after a hearty meal of sausage pasta in a freshly made tomato and basil sauce we hit the sleeping bags and had a peaceful nights sleep.
The following morning as we enjoyed a healthy breakfast we were greeted by a Park Ranger who asked us if we had seen the bear in the campsite this morning. Excuse me! What do you mean “bear in the campsite”? It turns out a Black bear had been snooping around the campground and licking the fire grills and looking for food. All whilst we merrily slept behind the impenetrable waterproof fabric of our tent. After reminding us to be vigilant whilst we ate our breakfast and the fact that the bears around here knew how to, and indeed perhaps liked to, break into cars he hightailed it out of there. Breakfast didn’t last much longer and we were very quickly once more making our way up the hill to try and explore the Kings Canyon part of the park.
As we
ascended further into the park we were once again greeted by a thick layer of cloud. Whilst not as bad as the previous day, still put an end to any hopes we had of seeing any grand vistas of the canyons. It also meant we had to be a bit careful whilst driving as there could still be ice or snow on the road. We pushed on to the General Grant tree. This is the tallest sequoia and 3rd largest by volume and was also the nations Christmas tree at one point. Again this was another very impressive tree and quite large but its scale is difficult to judge and comprehend when it is surrounding by other sequoias of similar sizes. The drive to the General Grant had taken a while due to very twisty roads, steep ascents and a 40 minute wait at road works so after seeing the tree we started making our way back to our camp. About halfway back we were looking for a picnic spot (for lunch) and, having found the one we were looking for but carried on due to the amount of snow covering it, we then passed a meadow and Sandra suddenly
shouted that she had spotted a bear. At the next available point I promptly turned around and we headed back and sure enough we saw the Black Bear. This one was a lot closer than any we had seen in Yellowstone so we obviously stayed in our car. Fortunately we hadn’t had our lunch at the picnic site as the bear was probably about 20 meters from it. As we crept along the road to try get a better view of this big bear we saw a much smaller one run across the road ahead of us. This one looked to be only about 1 year old and was quite cute. We turned around again, as we were now heading in the wrong direction, and as we slowly went along the road and stopped to take a picture the most unbelievable thing happened. A tiny little cub came running out of nowhere, over the snow and to the big mommy bear. It then proceeded to bounce around and play with its mom before being told to get back under cover. Over the next few minutes the little cub proceeded to dart in and out of its hiding spot and generally
just play around. It was quite an amazing thing to watch and the little cub was very cute as it was just a big ball of fur and no bigger than a puppy dog. Eventually we tore ourselves away and continued to our camp where we didn’t sleep quite so well knowing that there was a high concentration of bears in this park and hoping we would survive the night. We did.
From Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park we head west back to the coast. We would be making our way back to Los Angeles via Highway 1. This is a route we took on our trip here in 2006 and it really is a wonderful stretch of road. It hugs the coastline and gives dramatic views up and down the pacific coastline. We spent the night in a campground in the Big Sur part of the coastline. This is an especially beautiful part of the world and the road winds its way south with the rugged pacific coastline on your one side and majestic forests of Redwoods on the other. The campground was great and we spent a lazy afternoon lying in the sun by a river.
We were now caught up in a bit of a conundrum. Due to having skipped a couple of nights in Lake Tahoe, we had 1 extra day to fill before we were due back in LA for our flight to New York. We had toyed with the idea of going straight to LA and spending a day at Disneyland but decided against it as we wouldn’t be able to dedicate the required amount of time to it and also the cost is almost prohibitively expensive. In the end we decided to split the drive to LA into 2 and spend the night somewhere on the coast and have another relaxing day. We ending up staying in Morro Bay which seems like a nice town however the massive power chimneys on the way into town do somewhat detract from it. As we had not booked any accommodation we picked up a local hotel/motel coupon book and picked one. Let me point out now that we did not pick the cheapest place, we weren’t far off it, but there were cheaper available. We weren’t expecting much and that is pretty much what we got. It did have internet access and “breakfast”
but also a few other unmentioned extras as the bed bug bites that I am now covered in will attest to. For an image of the place, picture the motels you normally see on CSI where someone is found “no longer with us” and that is pretty much what it was. As an added bonus breakfast consisted solely of a choice of stale doughnuts. With our bags packed and breakfast successfully negotiated we headed back to LA.
As I now sit in the airport waiting for our overnight flight to New York I will look back on this leg of our trip with fond memories. In all, it took about 40 days and we covered almost 7000 miles but I think we accomplished a lot and saw some incredible sights. Next is the north eastern coast of America. This is one part of our trip that we haven’t looked into in too much detail so it will all be a bit of an unknown. We have less than 2 weeks left before we head home so we will give it all we have, try to keeps the thoughts of home to the back of our minds and enjoy everything
we see and do and make sure we don’t take any of these blessings for granted.
Sorry for the lack of photos, we are in a public library and have run out of time - will add more later.
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Hayley Bruton
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Heading Home
Hi guys! Cant wait to have you home and you are arriving just as the soccer excitement hits fever pitch..so you will be flying into 2 new airports probably surrounded by foreigners from so many other lands...the beach front is about to be complete which I have heard is INCREDIBLE!! So lots to look forward to and enjoy when you get back>>>month of soccer mayhem!! Oh and amazing wintery durban sunshine after all your snow!! get excited!! see you soon!