Ten days in, and we're still alive! Barely (if you ask my mother)!
Day 10: Tulare, CA to Fresno, CA by way of Sequoia National Park
Maps courtesy of maps.google.com
When Dad and I originally mapped out our trip (using information from the National Park website) and google maps, we thought we'd spend 2 hours traveling and 1-2 hours in the park. I mean, how much time can you spend looking at trees?!?!! It would be a short day, and if we had time, we'd drive on up to Yosemite before heading back to Fresno, CA.
What this map (and the park website) fails to tell you is - there are mountains (lots and lots of mountains), and the park roads are steep and absolute crap! The roads are so crappy, in fact, they are doing a lot of repair. Now, repair is good. It's always good to fix crap, but having to wait (and wait and wait and wait) while the repair work is being done is BAD! It turns out they only let cars go through a certain section of road in the park once per hour (at the top of the hour). So! We spent a considerable amount of time just sitting around waiting on road construction (going up and coming down the mountain). ARGH!
The other thing that Dad and I had underestimated was Mom's response to the winding roads. She was an absolute basket case! "Jim! Jim! Slow down! Slow down! OOOOOOH OOOOH! SLOW DOWN!" was the only thing (repeatedly) out of her mouth for a good three hours. I don't blame her. The roads were pretty scary. We were all holding our breath. Even Pepper demonstrated signs of distress (insisting to sit on Mom, Dad or me)! On the good side, the scenery was beautiful! We stopped at a few places along the way to take pictures. I really enjoyed the "Hospital Rock" and the nearby bedrock mortars used for grinding acorns a long long time ago!
Above: Scenery on the way to the Sequoias. TIP: If you want to calm Mom down, point out something "pretty" for her to look at on the mountainside!
Above: Hospital Rock and bedrock mortars in Sequoia National Park, CA
Once we got to the top of the mountain, all our waiting and stressing paid off! We were in the middle of the main attraction. The trees were amazing. They didn't look real. I couldn't believe how big they were. Dad and I agreed they look very cartoonish - big, exaggerated trunks with tiny tree-tops. Here are a few pictures - check out these big, big, big trees:
Above: Various pictures along the way in Sequoia National Park
Above: BIG TREES! Sentinel Sequoia (top middle and bottom) is over 200 feet tall! Even Daddy looks small standing next to Sentinel!
Above: General Sherman Sequoia - "A mighty big tree!" Note: Those tiny bits of color at the base of the tree are people! Really, I'm not kidding!
Dad and I had a lot of fun walking among the giants! I felt so small and was highly amused by how tiny my Dad looked standing next to the trees! I've never thought my Dad was a tiny man, but these trees totally changed my perspective. Along the way, we found a fabulous pair of gentle giants and had to pose for a picture or two:
Above: More BIG trees! Look at how small we look standing at the base of these guys! The bottom pictures are of us standing against a horizontal cross-section of a fallen Sequoia. HUGE, right?
Above: "Look! I'm too big for the Sequoia!" James Snyder; June 24, 2010
All in all, today was a pretty good day. On the way back from the park, we stopped off at an orchard and bought fresh oranges, cherries and pistachio nuts! YUM! I can't wait to break into them!
Tomorrow, we are off to San Francisco, CA. Should be fun!
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