Out West Adventure: Part 2--A Day of rest and an afternoon at south Yosemite

Sun. May 26: Today was a day of lazy rest and relaxation. Marv let me sleep in a bit and got up and read outside in the warming sun. We spent a lot of the morning and into the early afternoon reading and people watching as some groups packed up and left and others moved into the campsites left empty. We found out that the problem with the industrial-type unisex bathrooms that have a shower in each individual toilet area is that one can’t get to a toilet when that’s all that’s needed because there was a long line of people waiting for showers. Mid-afternoon we drove back to the little town of Woodlake to walk in their Botanical Garden which we had driven by on our way to Kings Canyon. First we climbed up the steep dike to get a look at the lake and found a nearly dried up, very shallow reservoir. Things must be getting desperate if the lake is that low at the beginning of the summer! We then walked through the long Botanical Garden that stretches along the bottom of the dike, wrapping along the lake. One end is almost entirely roses of every shade and size, many in full bloom with others fading away. There were other flowers, including lots of hollyhocks and sunflowers, and an entire hedge of fragrant rosemary. When we walked the other way we found many kinds of fruit trees and different grapes. There was no breeze getting down there and it was blazing sun and in the eighties so we didn’t make it to the end of the trees before we turned back. On our way back to the campsite we stopped at a small fruit stand and bought a 5 pound bag of oranges for $2. Further on we stopped at a larger stand where we were able to taste local cheeses, olives, olive oils, and flavored balsamic vinegars that weren’t local. We bought some items for gifts and returned to the campsite where we tried to take showers in the late afternoon but even then had to wait for one to open up for each of us. I ended up in the handicapped room, where the shower is in one corner, open to the sink and toilet, with no place to hang a towel or robe or to put toiletries down. The shower consisted of a tiny button which gave a one second spurt of water. There was no way I could wash my hair in that so I contented myself with just washing my body. Marv faired a bit better, getting 30 seconds or so with each push so he managed to wash his hair. We pretty much idled away the rest of the day and managed to identify a northern goshawk in flight by using Marv’s IPod bird identifying app.   We ate some yummy chicken brats for dinner before packing up as much as we could for a quick getaway in the morning.

Datura close-up (note the bit of lavender along the edges)

Datura at the campsite

Hedge of rosemary

Mon. May 27: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! We got away before 9:00 and drove to nearby Visalia for breakfast and WiFi at McDonalds to try and get information on camping in Yosemite, and groceries and gas. Then we drove north on Highway 99 towards Yosemite National Park. We again passed miles and miles of orchards and vineyards, with a median full of blooming azaleas. Even though it was getting on towards noon we decided to take a chance on there being camping at the South Entrance to Yosemite, thinking that the streams of cars and campers going past us the other way meant that most people were heading home from the weekend. We drove up over 5000ft. to the entrance only to find out that all campgrounds were full. So we turned around and went to a Sierra National Forest campground just a few miles from the entrance that we had noticed. There were only two sites there without reservation notes on the posts and one was clearly too small for us. Marv tried and tried to back into the other and finally admitted defeat. As we left the park the curmudgeon host told us that the site was reserved anyway and he thought we were the ones who had reserved it. Why it didn’t have a tag on the post we’ll never know. But he did tell us of another National Park campground to try, thirteen miles back down Highway 41.  We drove down to Bass Lake and checked into a site for just one night, in the Cedar Grove-Lupine campground, which is just one of many day use and campgrounds around the large lake. After setting up quickly on site #82 and chatting with the nice couple right next to us on the otherwise empty loop (they told us the entire place had been jam packed full over the weekend), we drove back up to Yosemite to spend some time in the late afternoon and evening there. We found out that there would be no campsite available for the next two nights so camping in Yosemite National Park was out for us. After we got our first Passport stamp for Yosemite, a nice volunteer at the Wawona Visitors Center showed us two of her favorite hikes nearby that we would have time to enjoy. The first was a one-mile hike to a narrow swinging bridge across a rushing, tumbling mountain stream. It was a pretty easy walk with some moderate elevation change and lots of beautiful wild flowers in bloom, including purple lupine and some sort of short purple iris. We crossed paths with a family and exchanged taking pictures on the bridge. 

Ground cover EVERYWHERE throughout the woods

The second hike was also about a mile but it was steeply uphill along Chilnualna Creek to the final cascade of Chilnualna Falls. An 8.2 mile hike would have taken us to the top of the falls but we didn’t have the time or the stamina to do that trek. Instead we drove back to the entrance and took the drive to Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Shuttle buses had stopped running so we could drive the two miles to the Grove and then we hiked 1.2 miles roundtrip to see trees in the Lower Grove. The Lower Grove has a modest number of Sequoias but nothing to compare to Sequoia National Park. The Upper Grove has more trees, including the iconic Wawona Tunnel Tree which, until it fell down in 1969, people delighted in driving through, thanks to the tunnel cut into it in the late 1800s. The Upper Grove is most easily reached by a narrated Tram Ride but it stopped running at 4:30 and it was nearing 7:00 when we got there. So instead we hiked up to see The Grizzly Giant, The Bachelor and the Three Graces, and the California Tunnel Tree. This tunnel was cut at about the same time as the Wawona but is still standing, though one can only walk through it now, not drive. There was a bit of light drizzle as we walked, attesting to the damp cold front which will be our weather for our time in Yosemite. It was getting dark by the time we got back to Bass Lake. We attempted to get me a shower at Miller Resort at the end of the lake, only to find that the store where one buys shower tokens was closed. Instead we wearily returned to the still mostly deserted campground to make dinner and get to bed. 

Out West Adventure: Part 2--Kings Canyon National Park

Sat. May 25: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!! We began celebrating our weekend by exploring Kings Canyon National Park. Following directions given to us by the woman at the Lake Kaweah Visitors Center, we took back roads that took us back to the San Joachim Valley with the acres of orchards and groves. As we traveled north we also rose high into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where agriculture gave way to ranches with livestock. The road was narrow and twisty so we were glad there was very little traffic. We came out at Highway 180, just outside the entrance to the park and at 6800ft. The temperature was in the low fifties and there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. To avoid the crowds we stopped only long enough at the Visitors Center to stamp our Passport and then drove past Grants Grove and the General Grant Tree, where the park is very like Sequoia, and continued on the 30 mile scenic drive to the Canyon. We climbed a little higher and then descended into the wide, U shaped glacial valley that John Muir wrote was even more beautiful than Yosemite. The road continued to drop until we were at the level of the tumbling, roaring, beautiful Kings River. We drove along the river for several miles through the mile deep Canyon until we reached Cedar Grove. The elevation down there was around 3300ft and the temperature was in the mid-70s. We stopped at a snack shop there and bought a salad and sandwich to share, sitting on the rocks by the river. Then we drove to Roads End, which is one of the entrances for the Pacific Crest Trail. The friendly rangers there offered to stamp our Passport with the Pacific Crest stamp, but I declined since we didn't actually hike that august trail. On our return we made many more stops, taking short hikes to see Roaring River Falls and Grizzly Falls, which begins its journey high up in the Monarch Wilderness of the Sierra Nevadas. We did get our final stamp for the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park at the Ranger Station in Cedar Grove. And there were many stops for scenic views and pictures. Our afternoon snack of cheese and apples was enjoyed high above the river, overlooking the granite walls and towering mountain peaks. It was about 4:00 when we got back to Grants Grove and the crowds were not as heavy as we took the trail through the Grove and to see the tree, which is one of the five largest in the world. Rather than returning on the winding road we had taken to the park we chose to get on Generals Highway and take it from Kings Canyon to Sequoia, sometimes running through the Sequoia National Forest and sometimes in the National Park itself. We rose to 7500ft and the temperature dropped to 51°. We went down some and then returned to 7300ft before we began to descend. It was fun to get back to the parts of Sequoia that we had seen on the Shuttle and eventually leave the park by the same route as yesterday. Back at the campground things were hopping and the temperature was in the eighties despite it being after 7:00. I made spaghetti sauce and Marv made a salad and we ate outside on the picnic table as the sunset into the hills. To work off our dinner we walked all around the campground, probably more than a mile, and looked at all the different set-ups people had for camping. Once again the noise slowly died and by 10:25 it was quiet and peaceful once again. 

Roaring River Falls

Grizzly Falls

Our Lord's Candle yucca

 

Out West Adventure: Part 2--Sequoia National Park

Fri. May 24: Sequoia National Park put on quite a display for us today. She was arrayed in wild flowers of every color. But the showiest were the whites: datura, dogwood, buckeye, and 6-10 foot tall “Our Lord’s Candle” Yucca. She was crowned with the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and above it all was a brilliant blue sky. And her trees; those magnificent trees!! We learned that Sequoias are a type of Redwood, but they differ from the Pacific coastal Redwoods in several ways. Mature Sequoias have trunks that barely taper as they grow so their girth goes up to their crowns, giving them great stability and the ability to live a long time without falling. Therefore, they are the largest by volume in the world, but not the tallest, which are the Coastal Redwoods. We arrived at the Entrance to the park at 9:00 and drove up, up, up Generals Highway. We briefly toured the Foothills Visitors Center and got our passport stamp there. We had to carefully time our departure from there to arrive at a construction zone at the hour or half hour in order to be allowed to pass through one-way as they improve the road. Mileage dropped to 8.0mpg as we rose from about 1000 feet to over 6000 feet with switchbacks and breathtaking lookouts up the valley of the Kaweah River. The temperature dropped into the mid-fifties and never got above the low sixties all day. At the Grant Forest Museum we parked the truck and for the rest of the day relied on the free shuttles throughout the park. This is how our day went:

• Toured the Grant Forest Museum and got another passport stamp for there.
• Took a shuttle from the Museum to the second General Sherman tree shuttle stop. We inadvertently made a great choice in that. We were at the top of the very steep .3 mile trail down to see the largest tree in the world—General Sherman. Because the top is dead the tree isn't the tallest but its girth continues to grow so it is the largest by volume. And it is huge! From the General Sherman we took the 2 mile Congress Trail to see several large stands of Sequoias named after Presidents, The House, The Senate, etc.  Along the way a pileated woodpecker landed at eye level in a tree about 5 yards away. It hopped a bit higher and then flew to a tree right in front of us and hopped its way up into the branches. Although there were some uphill stretches the trail ended down at the first General Sherman tree shuttle stop, where most people get off to hike UP to the tree. We caught the shuttle and took it on to
• Lodgepole Visitors Center, where we got our third passport stamp and looked around a little bit, knowing we would be coming back.
• Took a different shuttle up to Wuksachi Lodge. At 7000+ feet, this is the end point for the shuttles until the even higher Dorst Creek Campground opens in July. We ate a lovely lunch at the lodge looking out over the hillside of pine trees.
• Rode the shuttle back down to Lodgepole, where we took the time to watch the video about bears at Sequoia.
• Caught a shuttle down to the Museum where we could catch a smaller shuttle past Tunnel Tree (a fallen Sequoia through which cars can drive) to Moro Rock, a granite dome. Here one can climb 400 steps for a panoramic, 360° view of the Sierra Nevadas. We went a little more than halfway before heading back to catch the shuttle to go out to Crescent Meadow. The driver on our way out told us that the last shuttle would be at 5:30. That gave us about half an hour to take the trail around the quiet, peaceful wetland that has been there since John Muir’s time and earlier. As we walked a young mule buck with tiny antler buds walked up the trail towards us, seemingly unperturbed by our using his path. As he came very close he stepped off the trail and up the bank to give us a little more room. We continued on our way but the path became less well marked and we ended up hurrying the last half a mile for fear we would miss that “last shuttle”. We made it easily and then found out that there would be 2 or 3 more.

After spending a few minutes in the Museum we were happy to return to the truck to begin coasting out of Sequoia National Park. We got 62mpg going down (average for the day about 17mpg) and were happy to find that the construction had ended at noon for the Memorial Day Weekend so we didn’t have worry about timing our descent. It was 6:45 when we went back through the Entrance Gate, nearly ten hours after we had arrived. The campground had filled in considerably and was full of families and large, noisy groups but all was quiet by about 10:00. It had been a wonderful, but tiring, day and we had a simple soup supper and waited for the full moon to rise before we gratefully went to bed. 

(Sorry the next three pix won't load vertically) 

Out West Adventure: Part 2--Death Valley, Bakersfield and near Sequoia

Thu. May 23: We had some frustrations Thursday morning trying to get out of town, which made us feel like we weren’t going to have much luck finding a campsite near Sequoia National Park for Memorial Day Weekend, about an hour and a half beyond Bakersfield. The whole area was agricultural with dairy farms, orchards, vineyards and lush oleander everywhere. But the roadsides and hillsides beyond were brown and parched attesting to the irrigation that is fueling what opened into the San Joachim Valley farms. Marv had studied the literature and hoped to get a spot at Horse Creek Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers park on the shores of Lake Kaweah, a reservoir behind a large dam. When we arrived about 11:00 we saw a nearly empty campground and thought we were golden. Then we talked to the ranger and found out that it was 95% reserved for the weekend. But we did manage to find the last site on which we could fit the camper. What a relief to be so nicely situated about 8 miles from Sequoia for the whole weekend! After setting up and eating lunch we drove to nearby Visalia to get some groceries, do some banking, and buy fresh, local strawberries and cherries. Before returning to the campground we stopped at the small but nicely done Lake Kaweah Visitors Center that told the story of the dam and why it was needed. The volunteer warmed to us as she saw we were genuinely interested and gave us a lot of information on the area. She explained that the reservoir is extremely low because it was a light snow pack this winter and said that usually most of the campground we’re in is underwater until July or so, when they are releasing 3 feet of water per day from the reservoir. The farmers down in the valley are having to dig deeper and deeper wells and the situation is becoming pretty dire. When we did get back we found that a few campers had joined us but our high campsite has us well removed from others. We are just a few yards down the hill from the road but the traffic on it became lighter and lighter as it got later. And the site is full of datura (aka moon flower or angel’s trumpet). The temperature which had been in the low eighties dropped into the fifties as the nearly full moon rose. 

Marv's View

View of Marv

Campsite

Sunset over the reservoir

Full moonrise behind us

Wed. May 22: We had a good night’s sleep in the silent campground where the temperature only got down to the low sixties. We packed up and got on the road heading to Bakersfield, only about an hour and a half from Red Rock Canyon. We needed to get the truck’s tires rotated and oil changed so wanted a big enough city to do that. We quickly descended from the Mohave desert with Joshua Trees in bloom or with fruit pods, past the largest area of wind turbines we had seen yet, into lush, artificially green agricultural land. The roads were soon lined with oleander in shades of red and pink and white. As we neared Bakersfield it occurred to me that Jamie Slater might live here. I checked Facebook and was soon in contact with her to meet for dinner. We found the River Run RV Park, which turned out to be a very nice private park, across the dry bed of the Kern River from the Bakersfield Bike Path. Marv spent several hours getting the truck taken care of while I used the excellent WiFi connection to get caught up on the Blog. Then we rode our bikes for 7+ miles on the bike path before meeting Jamie and her fiancé, Aaron at one of the Lengthwise Brewery restaurants in town. We had a delightful evening of catching up with Jamie and getting to know Aaron. The RV Park had filled up some since the afternoon but it was completely quiet as we went to bed.

Just a few of the wind turbines east of Bakersfield

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Peggy, Marv, Jamie and Aaron

Tue. May 21: After an amazing night’s sleep, where the temperature only got down to about 65° and a single sheet was plenty to stay cozy, we lingered a bit in our campsite. The sun started warming the camper about 5:45 and Marv started the coffee a little earlier than usual because we were awake anyway. Yogurt and coffee were enjoyed sitting in our chairs, entertained by the local wildlife including several friendly chipmunks, a packrat, a jack rabbit, a lizard, a hummingbird, and assorted little birds of other kinds. Without hurrying we had the camper put away and were on the road before 10:00. Taking 215 and then 95 took us north of the Las Vegas traffic, though we could clearly see the now familiar skyline of The Strip. After driving the rest of the morning, stopping only for gas, we got to Death Valley National Park by about 1:00. Coming from the east we stopped at Zabriskie Point and climbed up a steep path about 100 yards to overlook the Badlands of Twenty Mule Team Canyon. Although they only used the mule teams for taking Borax out of the canyon for six years, they remain an iconic symbol for Death Valley. As the temperature climbed to 100° we were happy to get back in the car and drop, first to Sea Level and then below, and arrive at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. We stamped our passbook, watched their film, and went through the excellent displays about Death Valley, learning that the Timbisha Shoshone jointly manage the sacred, ancestral lands they call Tumpisa with the Park Service.  There was a picnic table in the shade that a group of French visitors were just vacating to eat our picnic lunch. We settled on a route through and out of the park, mutually agreeing that it was too hot to take any trails. Hiking isn’t recommended between May and September. Besides, the landscape is quite bleak in years, like this one, when there isn’t enough rain for wildflowers. As we drove, the temperature rose to 105° for a bit and then settled in about 102° while the GPS showed us at 235 feet below sea level. We passed north beside the salt flats and turned west past the sand dunes and then climbed steeply over 3000ft. with the truck really struggling and getting about 5.7mpg. We rose over the pass and then descended just as steeply into the Panamint Valley, which isn’t quite as low nor quite as bleak but was just as hot as we drove out of the Park. There were many more miles of the same bleak countryside. We stopped at a “Drive Inn” (no curbside service) that had been there since 1958 for ice cream and found a bus load of French travelers and heard the bus driver tell the girls at the counter that they would be seeing him again this summer until October because he loved to bring his people there and always would. Although we had heard at the Park that all this land was BLM land and we could camp anywhere, it was very clear that one wouldn’t want to a)pull off the paved road onto the gravelly, loose sides or b)camp in 102° with no shade in sight. So we kept on driving. I found that we could probably make it to a California State Park called Red Rock Canyon and Marv had seen it earlier and thought it looked promising so we made it our destination. There were some exciting short cuts and then we drove north on 14 and entered a sloping, smooth canyon and found the park. There are many campsites lined up along the edge of formations of loose, crumbly sandstone with only a handful of campers. The office is only open on weekends so we found a campsite much like the night before, tucked in beside what look like drip sand castles, where we can’t see any other campsites. As we set up the camper the sun went behind the rock hillside, the temperature dropped and the wind blew so it was very comfortable. To get a little more exercise after our many hours in the truck, we walked our registration about a half mile back down to the entrance to put in the kiosk. I made big chicken salads for dinner and we relaxed and planned for the coming days as the desert sky turned inky and the half moon shone brightly down.