Our last day in California was spent driving to San Francisco International. We stopped at Palo Alto on the way to check it out because I remembered it being nice from my previous trip.

And that’s about it! This trip was Theresa’s first long camping trip, but she enjoyed herself. It’s a shame we probably won’t go back (there are just too many other places to see), because there are some things we missed that I really would have liked to do.

On our last day in Sequoia/King’s Canyon, we left the campground at 9 AM. We drove down to see the Sherman Tree, and took the “Big Tree Trail” around a meadow called Round Meadow where there were lots of Sequoias, some interesting, some fallen. The meadow was getting wetter for some reason and a lot of the trees on its periphery had fallen recently.

We drove through a tree tunnel, then took a small trail to Hanging Rock for a view of Moro Rock. The sky was very hazy due to pollution from the San Joaquin valley. The view probably would have been 10 times better if that haze wasn’t there. We decided to skip the Moro Rock trail because we had already seen everything from the Hanging Rock viewpoint.

The last stop in the park was at Hospital Rock, which was a big waste of time. We didn’t even bother taking pictures of the “ancient drawings” there. The only cool thing was the old mortar holes, where the Indians ground the acorns and then bathed them to get rid of the toxins.

We decided to head towards Santa Cruz to stay for the night. On the way we passed tons of farms growing everything known to man. At one point we smelled a strong smell that we thought were onions growing there. Then we passed a truck that was filled with garlic. Normally you don’t smell garlic that is in its skin, but oh boy you could smell that.

Santa Cruz was a nice little beach town. We got the last room in a hotel there and proceeded to back up our duffel bags. We took the mess and dirt from our car and moved it into the room. By the time we were done with it, it looked like a raccoon was staying there.

After a much needed shower we went to the Wharf for a good seafood dinner, and I had beer for a change!

We went to Boyden Cave, where we saw stalagmites, stalactites, and even a little bat. On our way in we took a metal boardwalk through the cave but on the way back, we walked through the old creek bed underneath it.

After the cave we stopped at Grizzly Falls for lunch, then made our way to Cedar Grove, and did a trail. The trail wasn’t all that exciting, but Theresa was afraid of the bushes blocking part of the path and we turned back.

I was trying to find a good trail that went through the canyon, so we stopped at a ranger station and asked. The ranger was the first person ever to recognize my Capital Reef shirt. She told us about the trail we ended up going on, which was a nice loop around Zumwalt Meadow.

We drove back to the campsite along a windy road by Hume Lake. At the lake was a Christian Camp. All those Christians playing happily. I was afraid they would stone me if they found out I was Jewish! Along the road was a place called Lost Grove, where there were stumps from large trees that had been logged before the loggers figured out that Sequoias were not good logging material.

That night there was a commotion again at the campground, and at one point we were in the tent when we heard “it’s coming this way!” Theresa grabbed me half in fear and half in excitement, and as she peeked out the back window, she saw the bear running by. It was about 10 feet from our tent. I, unfortunately, did not see it and by the time we got out of the tent it was too late. Figures.

This Thursday was to be a hectic day. We had a lot of ground to cover on our way to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. We work up early and skipped breakfast before packing up and shipping out.

We drove down to the Mariposa Grove, an area in Yosemite where there were some giant Sequoia trees. The two main attractions there are the Fallen Monarch and the Grizzly Giant.

The Fallen Monarch is a huge tree that fell a long time ago. There is a “famous picture” of a cavalry brigade that climbed on the tree. I put “famous” in quotes because I never heard of it before I went there. The Grizzly Giant is a huge Sequoia with crazy branches coming out of it making it look almost scary. One of the branches was 6 feet in diameter!

On the way out of the park we stopped at a viewpoint where we saw Half Dome, the 3 Brothers, and El Capitan all in one place.

We drove east towards Fresno and passed through some vineyards (which may have been growing grapes for raisins) and orange groves. On the way up the mountain to the parks, we saw 8 or 9 Fresno Police Dept cars going the other way. Maybe they were having a picnic.

By the entrance of the park was Grant Grove, where saw some amazing Sequoias. Some of them had diameters up to 40 feet, like the General Lee tree (all older trees were named after generals). By the parking lot are the twin sisters, two trees that share a trunk.

We took a small trail, where we passed Sequoia National Park’s version of the Fallen Monarch. This tree had also fallen but it was hollowed out inside, probably even before it fell. In the olden days, visitors would have food and drink right inside the tree. That was pretty neat.

There was a lot of information about Sequoias. They live to be extremely old. Their bark is resistant to fire, which is why a lot of them have fire scars but are still standing. They usually fall uphill because of kindling that accumulates on their uphill side tends to burn hottest, and then during heavy wind or snow conditions they can’t bear the weight. Sequoias are not logged because their wood is very fragile and does not lend itself to construction. When they fall, they break into many pieces.

We stayed at Dorst Creek campground that night. When we got there the ranger was out, so I checked a chalkboard with site assignments. I misread the site number as 87, and when we got there someone was in our site.

We found the ranger roaming around the campground and asked for help. After driving by and seeing people there, we went back to the entrance and another ranger who was there said that the site number was actually 81.

The ranger tried to help us by giving us a new site that he said was nicer and more secluded. Well, it was secluded all right. It was a walk-in site, which means we had to take all of our stuff up a hill about 50 feet. And there were no other sites near it. Since it would be a pain in the ass to haul our gear up there, and Theresa was afraid of the bears (a sign at the entrance read “Extremely Active Bear Area”), we decided to take our original assignment site 81 instead.

After dinner, while we were sitting by the fire, we heard some commotion in the campsite below us. A ranger walked by and T heard him say into his walkie talkie “I’m chasing her.” There was much more noise from below. People were yelling and banging their pots and pans to scare the bear. Theresa was freaked out but I hoped the bear would come by us.

Tuolumne Meadows is over an hours drive from the Yosemite Valley. We took the long drive in the morning, and stopped at Olmstead point to take pictures. Right at the edge of the main valley road was Bridal Veil Falls, a towering waterfall that really does look like a bridal veil.

Yosemite is set up to use a shuttle system so that there aren’t cars everywhere. The park is very crowded so this helps keep the roads a little cleaner. We parked at the day use are then took the shuttle the Vernal Falls trailhead.

The hike was split into two parts, one labeled moderate and the other strenuous. We set out not knowing if we would go all the way. We ended up taking it all the way to the top of the falls, and the last 30 minutes or so were all up steep (sometimes slippery) steps.

There were some great views of the rapids and falls. Since the falls flow harder during spring when the mountain snow melts, some parts of the falls were not flowing with water, but you could see where the water goes down.

At the very top was Emerald Lake, where we stopped to rest and watched people swim around even though the sign said “No Swimming. People have died here.” There were squirrels everywhere, and they kept trying to get us to give them our apples. The climb down was hard because of our rubbery legs, and there were even more people coming up now than before.

We took the shuttle back to the visitor’s center and saw the Yosemite Spirit movie, which won some awards for best documentary. I thought it sucked, but at least the theater was air conditioned.

We then took the shuttle to Lower Falls, and took a little trail there. Everywhere we went up to this point we kept seeing these blue birds, which we later found out to be Stellar Jays. It almost seemed like they were following us.

We took the long drive back to camp, where we had dinner and hung out more with our neighbors.

After we left the site in the morning, I discovered that my hearing aid case’s cover was missing. We drove back to the site hoping that it would be there and sure enough I found it in the dirt where we parked. Whew.

We took the Rubicon Trail that led us to a lighthouse along Lake Tahoe. The lighthouse was the highest elevation lighthouse in the United States. It was built in 1919 for $900.

We stopped to go on the Balancing Rock trail, which is a short self-guided trail with a cool rock that is about 130 tons balancing on top of a smaller rock.

On the way out of Tahoe we stopped by the Emerald Bay lookout, which was extremely crowded, just like most of Lake Tahoe. Then we stopped by Camp Richardson, a little resort/rest stop for some ice and ice cream. Our destination was to be Yosemite National Park.

We took a road that went partially through Nevada and it’s capital, Carson City. Once we entered back into California, we came to Mono Lake. Mono Lake has many large mineral deposits called tufas. The mineral content is so high only brine shrimp, flies, and shore birds lived there.

The lake is used as a water supply for Los Angeles (LA actually owned the part of the park where we had lunch), and so the water dwindled down year by year. There is a boardwalk going down to the shore (over the marshes) with signs showing the height of the lake at different year periods. It went down more than 20 feet since 1850. This was one of my favorite places on the trip and I took lots of pictures.

In the distance you could see the youngest mountain chain in North America, and lots of volcanic rock.

At the place we had lunch, there were some people with a bunny on a leash. They took the bunny to the water fountain and from the picnic table it looked like the bunny was drinking water from the fountain. Theresa says she saw the dad cupping water in his hands and feeding it but I have my doubts.

When we got to Yosemite, there was a pretty lake at 9000 feet elevation called Ellerly Lake. We stopped there to take some pictures, then headed to our campsite in Tuolumne Meadows.

Our site was next to some loud talkative people who gave us a bottle of wine (they had a lot of extra bottles). We hung out with them for a bit then went to sleep early. It got really cold that night, almost as much as our campsite in Mendocino.

This was our last day at Lassen, and we were headed towards Lake Tahoe. We drove down the park road, and passed through areas with lots of snow. They had an exceptionally long winter that year. Along the way we saw the Texas Christians on the side of the road taking samples or something.

We went to the Sulphur Works area and saw boiling mud pots and steam vents. They had a large steam vent that smelled like hot, rotten eggs.

Lassen has many areas of volcanic activity, including one called Bumpass Hell. The trail unfortunately was closed due to snow cover. According to the books, that was the trail that had the most volcanic activity on it. Maybe someday we can return and spend more time in this awesome park.

We drove to Truckee, a crossroads town near Lake Tahoe, and had some ok mexican food. It made me miss the local place we go to, Don Jose. I was wearing my 311 shirt that looks like a 7-11 sign, and this lady comes up to me and exclaims, “Oh My God!! What is 311? That’s my birthday!” I guess people are more excitable in the west.

When we arrived at Lake Tahoe, we stopped by the lake to take in the view. Then we drove to the Olympic Village at Squaw Valley. We took a tram up to the top of the mountain, where it was very cold and windy. Theresa had told me to bring a sweatshirt but I refused, thinking it wouldn’t be so bad. So I froze my ass off.

We did get some beautiful views of the mountain and lake. I took some pictures (without snow) to compare with the snowy pictures I took there a year or so ago. We accidentally missed the next tram down and had to wait around another 20 minutes.

We then drove to DL Bliss State Park, where we were staying that night. We drove down to a beach in the park to take in some sunset views, then headed to the campsite for dinner and sleep.

This was the only night on the camping trip that we did not have wine.

The bathrooms were so good that they are worth mentioning. They were single bathrooms, some with showers and some with just sinks and toilets. Everything was very clean compared to camp bathrooms I had been to in the past.

The next morning, as we were eating breakfast, two deer walked right behind out tent. They were so close to use, yet seemingly unafraid.

We drove to Subway Cave, an underground lava tube that was formed when the top of a lava flow hardened due to cooling. The inside lava, insulated by the hardened top layer, kept flowing and eventually flowed away completely, leaving a hollow tube.

Inside it was very cold and had low ceilings. Certain parts were called “stub toe” areas where little stalagmites of lava deposits protruded out of the floor. There were also small “mud pots” that had hardened.

We then drove on a long, bumpy, slippery, unpaved road about 15 minutes to the Butte Lake campground area and the trailhead for the Cinder Cone trail. The road was fun to drive on in 4-wheel-drive. Theresa freaked out, and had me drive, but that was fine by me. The road was so bumpy that later that day when we opened the cooler we found an exploded tomato that was spread out all over the cooler.

When we got to the trailhead there was an Indian family there, and the man asked us about the trail. We told him he should bring lots of water, and he asked us to hold on while he got some and if they could go on the trail with us. We thought it was a weird request but we agreed.

So, Indian family in tow, we walked on the soft sandy black ground of the trail toward Cinder Cone, a small volcano. When the cone came into view it was amazing. We were actually stunned by the fact that we would be climbing this steep volcano.

There was a long, sandy, steep trail up the side of the volcano. It is a 700 feet climb with a 30 to 35 degree incline. We lost the Indian family along the way because they were trailing behind.

The ascent was arduous and Theresa barely made it. At the top, you can see Butte Lake, Mount Lassen, the lava beds, and the Painted Dunes (caused by mineral and iron deposits). We walked along the rim of the cone, and took a trail down on the other side, which was the long way back. The base circumference of the cone is a mile, so it took us an extra half mile or so to get back to the point at the base we started at. On the way down, which was lots of fun, we got tons of rocks in our shoes! This trail was so awesome that I took a lot of pictures here.

On the way back to the campsite, we showered (50 cents for 3 minutes) and did our laundry. Ahh, modern conveniences are everywhere!

The next morning, after getting about 10 miles away from the camp, we had to return to give back the bathroom key for the $5 deposit. I almost decided to forget about the money but the key was weighing heavy in my hand.

We then proceeded to drive towards Lassen Volcanic National Park. We stopped in Redding, about 3 hours away, to get some food. Every supermarket we came across was so nice compared to the ones back home. It’s such a shame.

We stopped at Whiskeytown Lake, which has a dam on it. We didn’t go see the dam because there was an accident on the road leading there.

However, we did come across a part of the lake where they had plastic “curtain” that held the warm water in the lake while letting some cold water fall through. This is because the Chinook salmon needs cold water to sustain its population. It’s a good example of a compromise between environmental concerns and the need to use the water to create electric power.

When we arrived at Lassen, we went to the Manzanita Lake campground and got a good spot. The bathroom was kind of crappy though, since it had no lights.

Our neighbors were from the Texas Christian University Biology Dept, and they had tents exactly like the one I went camping with then I was little.

This was the first site where we had bear-proof containers. The containers varied from campground to campground but they were always metal and had some kind of mechanism to open them that a bear supposedly could not use. We had to keep all food and toiletries (basically anything that had a smell) in these containers. Some cars had been broken into by bears looking for food. This was much different from the last time I was in the area (when I was a kid). Back then the bears apparently weren’t as bold as they are today.

After having lunch by the lake, we hiked a 3 mile trail to Chaos Jumbles. It was a good hike but a bit steep at the end. As we were hiking up a man about 40 years older than us ran right by us. I only hope I can be in that good shape when I get old.

On the way were lots of fallen trees with moss on them, and giant pine cones. We could see snow-capped mountains in the near distance.

Near the end of the trail, I looked down and see a small lake of snowmelt water and lots of craggy rock. We spent some time by the water, putting our feet in, then hiked back.

After dinner that night, we went to the amphitheater, which wasn’t too far from the campground. They were showing a bat slide show, and this really interesting ranger (Kathy) was giving the presentation.

The slide show was about how people should not be afraid of bats. The funniest part was a series of slides showing bats having different haircuts and stuff, and Kathy would say “if I had this hair, would you CARE for me NOW?” Uhm, I guess you had to be there.

We slept in that morning, until 8:30, which was late for camping. After breakfast we drove into Weaversville to look for a ranger station and ask about trails to take. Unfortunately, they were having a parade through main street so we got stuck in over 20 minutes of traffic, and on top of that the ranger gave us worthless information.

We decided to have lunch by the lake and then try and find a trail to take.

We had noticed a sign for trails on the highway on the way to the campground, so we drove there. We hiked a long, not so interesting, trail. We came across some shit a few times and T got scared it was from a bear. We headed back soon after that.

We got back to camp early, had an early dinner with wine, and went to sleep.. early.