Heading to the coast

Heading for the coast.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Left Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP about 9:30. Drove to the Dos Reis County Park near Lathrop, just off I-5. Nice place. Perhaps 25 RV sites. Run by the County. This puts us about half way to the coast; our current destination. One strange rule. We were bluntly informed by the matron-in-charge, that dogs must only be on a hand-held 6’ lease. Can’t even tie them to our lawn chair on a 6’ leash. Hand held only!!. They charge $1/night/dog. Does that mean I don’t have to clean up after my dog since I’m paying extra? Oh well. It’s a convenient, one night stop.

Friday: Continued the drive. Had lunch at Granzella’s Deli in Williams. Read about it in one of the tourist books. It’s a local institution. We got there about 11:15. By noon time the place was standing room only. Carol had a turkey/cranberry sauce/cream cheese sandwich. I had a muffalata(sp). Hadn’t had one of those since New Orleans. We drove to the M & M Campground in Clearlake Oaks. An interesting place; not what we had envisioned from the campground book. The campground is at the end of an island. To get there, you drive through an old trailer park. During the day, it’s mostly a local fishing place. There is us and two other campers. Gopher had a good swim in the lake. Carol read her book for the day. A convenient place to stop for one night. Tomorrow we will be staying at a state park on the ocean.

Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

Sequoia NP was established in 1890. Only Yellowstone NP is older.

Entered the park at the Foothills Visitor Center near Three Rivers, CA. This is the south entrance. The gate house staff said the Park Service advised, but did not require, a 22’ limit on the size of vehicles driven on this part of the Generals Highway. We’re 27’. She said motorhomes like ours enter here all the time. On we went. Stopped at the Visitor Center for information on accessible trails for Carol. The lady pointed out several she thought we could do unless they were still covered with snow. The part of the road with the 22’ length recommendation wasn’t much really. I’ve driven on much narrower and winding roads in North Carolina and Utah.

Lots of snow still on the ground. We enjoyed it. A nice change for us. Gopher just loves the snow. Runs through it, rolls in it, eats it. Tonight it’s supposed to drop down into the high 20’s.

Besides various overlooks, our first stop was the General Sherman Tree. This is the largest living tree on Earth. There is one species of tree that lives longer and three species that grow taller, but for sheer mass, none is larger. In all the world, sequoias grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, mostly between 5,000 and 7,000 feet of elevation. The General Sherman Tree is an estimated 2,200 years old.

Sequoia Facts: Height: to 311’. Age: To 3,200 years. Weight: To 2.7 million pounds. Bark: To 31” thick. Branches: Up to 8’ in diameter. Bases: To 40’ diameter.

There was a nice museum at the Sherman Tree site. We set out on another walk through a grove of Sequoia’s but had to stop because of the snow on the trail. After that we drove to the Montecito-Sequoia Lodge area for lunch then on to our campground. We camped at the Azalea Campground near the Grant Grove Village Center. There were only about 10 other campers in the entire place. That is one of the really things about traveling off season. No reservations required. This is a very nice campground. It’s obvious that when the campground was laid out, a major effort was made to save as many trees as possible. We walked up to the Grant Grove Village area. There is a Kings Canyon Visitor Center where we watched a movie about the park and looked through the museum. Poked around the gift shop & grocery store. Bought two post cards for Izzy & Finn.

We were going to stay another night but Carol was cold and said she had seen enough big trees. She was ready to move on. J

In the morning we drove to the General Grant Sequoia Grove. Gopher & I walked around. Carol stayed inside. It was 34*. Left about 9:30. Our destination was the Dos reis County Park near Stockton. That puts us about half way to the California Redwood Coast; our destination