Back on the Grid & Catching up - Wednesday and Thursday

WEDNESDAY
The Quality Inn in Petaluma was a nice motel..the elderly Chinese lady at the front desk was friendly and wanted us to be sure and eat a good breakfast. They had a good breakfast there so we pigged out both mornings.

Today we were thinking about going to a winery but decided that we would rather get to Sequoia National Park early...at least in daylight. I've been to enough wineries for a while and I told Jill I'd take her to Casa Rondeno in New Mexico sometime. Sequoia was a five hour drive south on a few freeways through Berkeley and Oakland and then on through Fresno and the San Joaquin valley.

I sometimes sense that people are concerned about my driving. Occasionally I hear people screaming at me while I'm driving and sometimes it is coming from outside the car. At times I feel I have a civic and moral duty to make other drivers' lives flash before their eyes. Maybe they will mend their ways. But, actually, today's drive to Sequoia was uneventful, traffic-wise.

The San Joaquin Valley is a huge garden -- industrialized farming seems to be the thing. Lots of grapes, fruit orchards and some corn. The soy bean processors were working hard...based on the smell. There was one cattle feedlot that came up on us before we could close the windows. Once we headed into the foothills we hit a bunch of orange groves. The air pollution kept getting worse as we headed south. This is obviously a serious problem...my eyes, nose and throat burned. We couldn't see the mountains and were surprised when the low foothills appeared out of the smog.

We got to the national park after 4 PM and it was getting dark as we climbed up into the mountains. We still had an hour to drive after we got into the park. About halfway up we pulled into an overlook to take some pictures and the entire valley below us was in a dense pink fog. The mountains were clear and seemed to float on a sea of smog. We continued climbing and saw a bear...then another one...then a third one on the road. The are Black bears and a little larger than an Old English Sheepdog. They were not afraid of the car and just went about their business. There were no other cars on the road. A little farther on we had to brake for three mule deer on the road. Jill saw something that might have been a Ringtail Cat climbing up the slope.

We got to the Wuksatchi Lodge just as the light was fading. We were glad we didn't stop at a winery because it was soon pitch black. We got into our room in the Stewart building and unpacked...it was a nice room. At 7,000 feet we had no cell phone or Internet service but the TV worked. The satellite radio in the car was going in and out as we climbed into the mountains. There was a little snow on the ground from a few days earlier.

We ate at the Lodge....good food. We ended up buying a couple sweatshirts because it was going to be cold in the morning and we didn't have sufficient warm clothes. We went back to the room and relaxed and were asleep by 9:30.

THURSDAY
We slept well and had a good breakfast at the lodge. We put on our matching Sequoia National Park hooded sweatshirts and started out. We saw a bunch of impressive Sequoia trees on our way up to the lodge but it was too dark to get a full view. Today we headed to the main grove and were stunned by the size of the trees. We took a hike around a large meadow among some huge trees. These were maybe 10 to 15 feet in diameter and went up about 100 feet before there were any branches. We took a bunch of picture. A little farther along the trail and we discovered a film crew that was shooting some kind of a travel company commercial among the trees. Other than the film crew and a few other people, we had the place to ourselves.

Next we went to see the tunnel tree....this is the one that you can drive through except that it is laying down across the road. We took a picture of our golden rental car going through the tree.

Our next stop was Moro Rock. There is a steep trail and 400 steps that take you up to the top of a huge granite rock dome that towers over the valley. We started climbing...and climbing. There were plenty of railings and the trail was paved or cut into the rock. It was very narrow and twisting in places but we panted our way up to the 6,750 summit observation area. Just as I was thinking I had gone as far as I could, a pregnant woman came down from the top. We met a little 72 year old lady at the lodge this morning who told us all the stuff she had done...including climbing up Moro Rock. Well, if those tow can do it, so can we. But, we had to stop and catch our breath at the top before we could take pictures or pose for pictures without looking like we were dying.

That 72 year old lady also told us that she was walking along a trail with a bear following close behind...like maybe four feet behind. She said it just followed her for a while but she finally had to turn around and clap her hands several times to make it run away. The bears seem pretty unconcerned about humans but that is a little too close. Jill bought some "bear aware" bells to carry with us, just in case.

Another discovery of the morning was that we had less than a quarter tank of gas and the closest gas station was an hour away in the town of Three Rivers, outside the park. We coasted most of the way down the mountains trying not to use much gas. We were the only car on the road for most of the way down. At one point we came around a sharp curve and surprised a mother bear and her cub standing on the road at the base of a steep slope. The cub got up the hill but the mother had a hard time finding a way up and got a little panicked. By that time we were past them and they were OK but they went on up the hill anyway. The cub was a tan color and had not turned black yet.

We made it to Three Rivers and filled up on gas. It was about 1 PM and we were hungry so we stopped in "The Three of Us" Bakery and got lunch. I had a huge omelet and Jill had a French Dip...pretty reasonable prices and good food.

We headed back up into the mountains. Our quest was to see the General Sherman tree...the biggest living tree (more or less). At least the General Sherman tree gets the credit as such. The tree is not easily accessible. Once you get to the parking lot you have to hike down a paved trail that winds down a ravine. Finally you see it and it is tremendous. It is maybe two to three times bigger around than the trees we were so excited about in the morning. It looks like part of the top of the tree is missing but it is still very tall. This tree has more volume ov wood than any other when measued in board feet. We took bunches of pictures and walked among the giant trees. This grove had several huge trees besides General Sherman.

We were tired after our second hike at about 7,000 feet. They were not long hikes but were challenging for us at this elevation. We drove back to the Lodge and made reservations for dinner and then drove farther up the slope to see the Lost Grove of Sequoias. This grove is pretty far up the mountain and across Little Baldy saddle so it is separated from the other big trees. There was no one else there so we had the entire grove to ourselves.

As we headed back to the lodge we had a view of the sun setting what looked like the ocean. Actually it was setting into the cloud of smog that engulfed San Joaquin Valley . I'm hoping that there was some kind of temperature inversion and that this is not typical. They did point out at the park museum that Sequoia National Park was one of the most threatened parks because of air pollution.

We ate so much for lunch that we just had tomato bisque soup and I also had a salad...but we got dessert to take back to our room for later. We watched TV and looked at our photographs before going to bed. Tomorrow we head back north and stay by the airport in San Bruno.