Sequoia National Park

A lot to cover today. We headed for the park at around 9. The line of cars backed up at the entrance station was over a mile long. It took us 45 minutes to enter. Not a good sign. The 25 mile drive, gaining 4000 feet, is a nail biter. Dozens of 10 MPH hairpin turns made me think the road was an automotive Angels Landing. I had a trailhead in mind when we started the drive. When we finally got there, there was one parking spot left in the entire lot. We nabed it. We were out for 5 hours and saw a bunch of big trees. Our first stop was The General Sherman tree. It is the largest tree on the planet. 37 foot diameter, 103 foot circumference

estimated weight of 1400 tons, 2300 years old. There was a very long line of mostly Japanese tourists waiting to have their picture taken in front of it. Sadly, we didn't get in line. There were very many, very big, Sequoias that we saw on our hike that we did photograph. Too many actually. See pics. Today was so stressful that we are thinking about taking tomorrow off. I really don't want to do that drive again. We are here to also visit Kings Canyon. Hopefully, that drive won't be as exciting. More tomorrow.

Lemon Cove California

You would think a place called something "Cove" would be on a lake. Nope. We drove probably 30 miles through many square miles of citrus. I was blown away. All those trees had to be watered and we were driving through a desert. I'm not sure where the water came from but there had to be a lot of it. We are here to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. This park is located in the foothills of the Sierras. In order to get to where the big trees are the road climbs 4000 feet in 25 miles. We'll do that tomorrow. The plan is to spend 2 days exploring Sequoia and 2 days in Kings Canyon. This is the farthest away from home we are going to get. When we're done here we"ll head East.

KOA Yermo California

We are just down the road from Barstow. Our destination is Sequoia and to get there we have to get around Death Valley. Because of that we were pretty much due west today and will be due North tomorrow. We were bombarded with billboard adds for a 50s style diner that just happens to be right here in Yermo. We drove over there and had lunch. There is also a Ghost Town a few miles away. We visited that tourist trap after lunch. The town we will be in tomorrow has a population of 400 so I have no idea how connected we will be. We will be in that spot for 5 days.

Day 2 Lost Wages

Lucky it cooled off today. It only 109°. The humidity is 4%. It's a really, really dry heat. This morning we made our way to the Sphere to attend a showing of The Wizard of Oz. The story is the same, the actors are the same, the music is the same but the experience is way different. The scene when Dorothy gets sucked up by the tornado was actually scary. We got blasted in the face with strong wind and leaves and debris were blown all over the theater. The seats vibrated when there was a thunderclap. After she got to Oz, half a dozen giant butterflies began flying around. The screen covers 180° both horizontal and vertical. A unique experience. We head further West tomorrow.

Lost Wages Nevada

We left 10,000 feet and are now at 2000. We left 49° and are now enjoying 110°. I am running out of a couple of my prescriptions. I texted our doctor in Beaufort and he had the prescriptions filled at a Walgreens here. That was our first order of business after we got set up. We drove around some after we did Walgreens and our collective opinion of this town is underwater. The heat might have something to do with our opinion but there is something about the over the top vibe here that is off turning. Tomorrow at 11 in the morning we will be sitting in The Sphere to watch their version of "The Wizard of Oz". I've been trying to figure out where we are going to park. Parking at The Sphere costs $50 so that's not going to happen. It sounds like we are going to have to hike. It should be below 100 at 10:30. Jenny took that pic as we left Cedar Breaks.

Cedar Breaks day 2

We started the day with a ranger led hike to identify wildflowers. One of the attractions here has to be the flowers. They are very abundant. That spikey plant has a story. It's called a monument plant. It grows as a ground covering leafy plant storing energy in its roots for 20 to 80 years. It then shoots that stalk up. The stalk is covered with 200 flowers that produce 60,000 seeds. Death soon follows. No one knows what causes it to bloom. Sometimes whole hillsides bloom the same year. Well, after that, we did the rim hike. There was a forest of Bristle Cone Pine trees along the rim. Most of them were healthy, green, normal looking trees. Some looked weird enough that we took a picture. I'm sure you know that those trees are the oldest living things on earth. Tomorrow we are at a KOA in Las Vegas. We have tickets to see The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere day after tomorrow.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

There is no air up here. I was out of breath just getting the camp set up. The air is cool, it has been in the 70s since we got here. We got here early enough that we were able to do some exploring. There are wildflowers in abundance everywhere. The scenery is spectacular but we are becoming somewhat callused to spectacular scenery. There are only a few hiking trails in the park. The canyon walls are too steep to allow any trails down to the bottom so all the trails are on the rim. We have no hookups at the campsite but there are flush toilets and believe it or not, showers. That's unusual but fantastic. Weirdly, the T-Mobile signal is the strongest and we happen to have a T-Mobile hotspot. We are powering it with our Jackery battery so all is well. More tomorrow.