I was anxious. I was awake. It was 5:45am. We have plans to drive into Sequoia National Park to see the giant Sequoia trees, this means driving up the “General’s highway”, a road restricted to vehicles 22’ or shorter. Ours is 22’ plus the bike rack. We’ve been told by our camp host that it should be fine as long as I take my time. [Remember Tony, you’re not driving the MINI.]
Shortly after 8:00am we leave our campsite and immediately find a reason to pull over and stop… to clean the windshield that is. Expecting some epic views and vistas and wanted the glass to be as clean as I can get it with white vinegar and shop cloths (all we got).
The drive UP the General’s Highway is just that, UP. The drive to the Giant Forest Museum from our campsite is measured at 15 miles and should take about 40 minutes. The road rises to over 7,000 ft above sea level. There were too many switchbacks to count and all the time the road rose in front of us. It was narrow, tight & twisty, a perfect road for a MINI cruise, but I was in what felt like a huge lumbering truck. Slow and steady would get us there.
The views were astounding, there are several nice pullouts where you can get out to take pictures. We see the flora around changing as the elevation increases, we pass through areas where wildfires have burnt the trees back to standing black poles devoid of all life. And then we arrive near the top of the climb and turn into a land of giant trees.
These are not your normal giant trees, these are Sequoias. We both expected large trees, it’s what we had come to see, but these are incredible. Thousands of years old and still standing on guard in groves near the tops of these mountains. Sequoias are not the tallest trees, that honor is reserved for the Redwoods, however, they hold the record for being the largest by mass with some estimated at being well over 1000 tons.
Leaving the museum we go on to find General Sherman, one of the largest Sequoias in the world. We park and walk down a nice trail to an enormous tree. It has to be well over 20 feet across and a few hundred feet tall. The trunks of the Sequoia tree do not narrow very much and so the trees feel more massive because of this. The bark can be up to 2 ft thick which help the largest trees in the event of fire as it would take a while to burn through this before exposing the sapwood that provides the nutrients to the upper portion of the tree.
Walking back up from General Sherman to the van we both feel the effects of exercising at over 7,000ft. It is tiring.
We now head out of Sequoia National Park towards Fresno, CA. A place to stop, get fuel and have lunch in the van. I take the time to upload yesterday’s blog post now that I have access to the internet.
We head North from Fresno along Hwy 41 towards Yosemite National Park. We have what we think is the last available site in the park reserved for one night. The drive is hilly and the road twisty causing for traffic to be inconsistent but as we get closer to the park traffic lightens and the drive is more enjoyable.
Entering the park we save another $35USD because of our annual pass. The road continues to be twisty and we are now really gaining elevation again. The 30mile drive takes nearly an hour but the reward at the end!
Our breathes were taken away as we turned a corner and looked right down into Yosemite Valley. Past El Capitan and the Bridal veil falls all the way to Half-Dome. This was a view that I had seen many times published by others or in TV documentaries now staring me right in the face. I yanked the van to stop and jumped out to capture some pictures. The sun was perfect, shining straight down the valley illuminating the rock surfaces and trees while causing a rainbow to appear at the base of the bridal veil falls.
We descended into the valley through a rock tunnel only just tall enough to clear the roof of our van. The valley was quiet. It’s April and the crowds have not yet descended upon the park. It’s not empty, I’m sure it never is, but there are parking spaces and room to move about. We enjoyed a drive along the valley to the end and then back to the road that will take us North out of the valley towards our campground for the night.
The drive is up yet again along a twisty road that hugs the sides of the mountains. We eventually descend towards the campground and turn into Hodgdon Meadow campground.
Our campsite is not fancy or level. We do the best we can and set about having dinner. Our neighbors, the camp hosts seem to be having a party, hopefully it will wrap up before bedtime.
All for now, tomorrow we head towards Napa, CA.
