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.