We are currently parked at a quaint little campground in Klamath, CA which is about as far north you can go in CA before crossing into Oregon. It is a great location right on the Klamath River and the sun is really trying to stay out! This is one of the salmon run rivers although we have not seen anyone actually catch anything!
The RV Park is tucked in the middle of all the trees.
They have a saying about the California weather “ May Gray -& June Gloom”. For the most part, that is what we have been experiencing, at least when we are near the coast. If we go inland a little, even just a few miles, it usually gets a little warmer and we find some sun! Our next trip to California will definitely be later in the summer or maybe early fall.
Since our last update we have visited 4 National Parks: Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Redwood. We took hundreds of photos of the huge sequoia and redwood trees, canyons and waterfalls, but it impossible to capture their beauty with a mere two dimensional photo! We also enjoyed family visits with Kathy’s sister Patty and her husband Roman (another Minnesota guy!) in Santa Rosa and our oldest granddaughter, Ana, who lives in Arcata, CA.
After we left Monterey we drove to to Visalia, CA and stayed at another Elks Lodge. From here it was only 30 miles to our first stop, Sequoia National Park, the oldest national park in California. (established in 1890) .
These giant sequoias are not the oldest or the tallest trees, but in total volume they are the largest living things in nature. Starting from a small 2 inch seed, these giants need three things to survive, water, sunlight and bare soil.
Can't get the whole tree in one photo!
Before the locals understood that sequoias depend on fires to survive, they used to fight all the natural fires, believing they were destructive. This allowed brush and other trees to grow and spread out which ended up blocking the sun and draining the moisture from the ground. This caused a huge reduction in the sequoia population. In the 1960‘s they figured it out and now have prescribed burns to control the undergrowth and now the sequoia population is making a great rebound. Many of the trails were still snow covered and impassible without snowshoes but we visited the Museum and took a few short strolls through the sequoia groves. We did get to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest living tree in the world! It is 102 feet around and taller than a 27 story building! (275 feet)
The next day we headed for Kings Canyon National Park. Again, many of the hiking trails were still under several feet of snow but we were able to follow the short path to see the General Grant Tree, also very impressive at 267 feet high!
Then we took a 30 mile long drive deep into the canyon following the South Fork Kings River. The river carved the canyon to a depth of 8,000 feet, 3,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon!
At some points the river was raging and then a few miles later it would look so calm you thought you could wade across. We stopped for a picnic lunch near one of the calmer areas and I stuck my toes in....VERY COLD!
Just as we reached the end of the road we saw other visitors beginning to set out their picnic lunch. Not even two minutes later a huge bear arrived and headed straight towards their picnic table! They quickly packed up the food and headed back to the car while everyone else grabbed their cameras to capture a photo!
The elevation range in both of these parks offers visitors a wide range of temperatures. If you are too hot, go uphill and the temperature may drop 10-15 degrees! Too cold, head downhill to the valleys!
From Visalia it was a short drive to our second Escapees Park for this trip, Park of the Sierra, in Coarsegold, CA . It was a great park with huge sites and very friendly people!
Our "Home" at the Escapees Park, Park Sierra near Yosemite
This was the closest place we could find for our visit to our next park,Yosemite.
It took us almost an hour to drive to the entrance and another hour to get to the Yosemite Valley. We spent 3 days in Yosemite and covered only a small part of the 748,000 acres (roughly the size of Rhode Island). Our timing was excellent to see the waterfalls. As a result of the near record amounts of snowfall this winter, all the falls were really roaring.
The only down side was that due to the snow, some of the mountain trails and roads were still closed. We’ll have to come back another time to go to Glacier Point and drive through Tioga Pass, the highest automobile pass in California.
We spent 2 days exploring the waterfalls and the Yosemite Village area. The drive down to the Village winds by several waterfalls. We hiked some of the shorter trails to the base of the waterfalls, getting soaked as we did not think to bring our raincoats!
In the valley, we stopped to watch several rock climbers make their way up the huge El Capitan. The climb up the 3,000 foot sheer granite face takes more than one day so the climbers sleep in slings hanging off the cliffs! No Thanks!
On the 2nd day we decided to splurge and have lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel which opened in July 1927. It was named after the first residents of the park “The People of the Ahwahnee” (Land of Gaping Mouth). The restaurant was very pricey but decided we were worth it! We each had a cup of soup and split a hamburger for $55.00 (including a nice tip) You could stay at the hotel in a “standard room” for only $450. per night and one of the suites goes for $1,000. a night. It is a very impressive place. The Great Lounge has huge oak tables, oriental rugs, wrought iron chandeliers ans a six foot tall fireplace at each end.
Yosemite Village is also home to Ansel Adams first studio. He is best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. He first visited Yosemite in 1916 with his family where his father gave him his first Kodak Brownie box camera. Ansel Adams continued to operate the studio until 1971 and it is still operated by the Adams family.
On the last day we visited Mariposa Grove which is full of over 200 giant sequoias. We hiked 2 miles up to an elevation of 6,600 feet. to see the giant sequoia that people used to drive their cars through.
Unfortunately, the tree fell in 1968.
After a few photos and a short rest we made our way back down the 2 mile trail to the parking lot. After a little lunch we spent a few hours at the Pioneer Center of Yosemite, a small village with horse drawn wagons, a covered bridge built in 1857, and several log cabins. There are costumed interpreters who will stop to tell you what life was like in the area in the early years. All the buildings had previously been located in various sections of Yosemite. In the 1950‘s and 60‘s they were moved to a central location in the southern area of the park near Wawona which was an old stage coach stop for visitors to Yosemite. By stagecoach it was an eight hour bumpy ride from Wawona down into Yosemite Village. (and we thought an hour in our car was long?)
From Yosemite our next stop was in Santa Rosa, CA to visit my sister, Patty, and her husband Roman (another Minnesota guy). We stayed at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, not fancy but level sites with all of the hook-ups and 5 minutes from my sister’s house.
Patty & I visited the Snoopy Museum (officially the Charles Schultz Museum).
Schultz was the creator of the Peanuts comic strip featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and others. It was perfect timing for a visit with my sister as the special exhibit was on the comic strips about siblings. There was also an exhibit on Peanuts Philosophies. Two of my favorites were: “All you need is love...but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.” and "Be yourself. No one can say you're doing it wrong!”
Again, the weather was a little cool and gloomy but we did get a sunny day to drive to Bodega Bay along the coast.
We were thinking of taking Route 1 along the coast when we continued our journey north, but after driving just 10 miles up the coast, we decided it was NOT an RV friendly route! Too many steep hills, sharp curves with no shoulders and big drop offs! We would be way too nervous to enjoy the ocean view! We’ll stick with the wider and safer Route 101!
Before we hit the road again, we managed to get one more sunny day in the 70’s and played golf at Santa Rosa Municipal Golf Course, a very nice public course and only $20.00 with a cart!
We stopped for one night in Garberville, CA to tour the 31 mile Avenue of the Giants, part of the original Redwood Highway.
We stopped at several places along the drive to walk through some of the redwood groves. Redwoods only grow in a narrow strip along the Pacific Coast. They grow from a seed the size of a tomato seed and can grow to weigh 500 tons! Unfortunately, logging began in the 1850’s and destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of the forest. It was finally stopped in the 1918 with the establishment of the Save the Redwoods League. This eventually led to the creation of 3 California State Parks to protect the trees. Redwood National Park was not established until 1968 and it’s boundaries encircled the 3 state parks.
Since it was late afternoon, Tom & I were usually the only two people around. Walking among these giant trees was somewhat mystical and very impressive. It’s impossible to capture the experience with photos.
We also stopped at a local tourist trap to “drive through a giant Redwood tree”. We found out that our Jeep was too tall with our car-top carrier, so we just walked through.
Our next stop was at the Elks Lodge in Eureka, CA.to visit our oldest granddaughter who lives in nearby Arcata. We enjoyed hanging out with her and got in one more round of golf. We also spent a day exploring part of the Redwood National Park.
From there we traveled to our current home in Klamath where we are ending our two and a half month tour of California. It really is a huge state (900 miles from bottom to top)!
We stayed 3 days at our beautiful campground on the river and spent more time exploring the Redwood National Park and the local beaches. We did not get to see the world’s tallest tree (379 feet!) as it resides in a very secluded grove. We did see some local kids having fun! See the boy on top of the rock?
Tomorrow we will say good-bye to California and continue on to Oregon! We were hoping to visit Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon but according to fellow travelers and the Park’s website, they still have 8-10 feet of snow on the ground and the Rim Drive is closed! I guess we will stick to the coastal route for now!
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