Sequoia National Park

We had breakfast at Denny’s and did some shopping in Camping World and then we hit the road again. North on US65, first through an area of hills covered in nodding donkey oil pumps and then acres of grass, all dry and brown, but then the orange groves and vineyards returned and lined the road all the way to Three Rivers, named after the three forks of the Kaweah River which criss cross the town.

We found Horse Creek Campground on the outskirts of the town, built by the US Army Corp of Engineers on the side of Kaweah Lake which was formed when they built the Kaweah Dam.

The next day we unloaded the motorcycle and had a ride into the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, whilst it was warm enough down in the campground as we climbed into the park the temperature dropped and by the time we got to the Giant Forest Museum there was snow on the ground. We parked and walked around Crescent Meadow, a relatively small open area of grass with a stream running through it. The information board told us that the ground is too wet for the trees to grow there but they seem to grow everywhere else, we were surrounded by huge trees. The board also told us that Sequoias don’t die of old age and are resistant to fire & insect damage. Most die by falling over, they have a shallow roots system with no tap root, strong winds, heavy snow falls collecting in their branches or water logging of their roots can cause them to topple over. There was plenty of evidence of that around us as well. We decided not to go further into the park; it wasn’t very warm and at 7000 feet it wasn’t going to get any warmer that day. We came back down to Three Rivers and stopped at the White Horse bar for an amber bock; we sat on the back veranda watching the Kaweah River rush over the boulders past us.

The next day we had a quiet day in the campground, the view was idyllic and the birds were everywhere, grebe, white and blue heron, coot and mallard on the lake, flycatchers, oriole, purple finches and nuthatches in the trees around us. After supper a couple from an adjoining site joined us around the campfire to toast marshmallows and we talked until late.

On Friday we rode around the area, first through Woodlake where we missed our turning and got lost in the orange groves. Then we found Piedra way up in the hills but could be a good place to explore the northern part of the park, Kings Canyon. We returned via Visalia and Exeter where we had a beer in a sports bar. The plan was to have a quick beer at the White Horse before supper back at the RV but we ended up eating at the Bar, couldn’t resist the deep fried mushrooms!

Saturday we went back into the park, up over Pumpkin Hollow Bridge and this time we carried on to Grant Grove where the General Sherman tree is the world’s largest living tree.

Near by a tree which had fallen over a path way was hollowed into an arch, an ideal place for a photo, except we had to wait for the coach load of german tourist to walk through first. Don't they know who won the war!

We found a quiet place by a creek to have lunch and then returned back down the incredibly winding road, I lost count of the hairpins, and the road works made it even narrower.

Dave spent most of Sunday at the White Horse watching the Nascar race, I watched the water level rise in the lake, it had been rising by 1 foot a day with melt waters off the Sierras and the trees on the waters edge were already half under water. We packed up on Monday, had a last campfire and cooked supper on it.

We were back on the road on Tuesday in glorious sunshine, we were sad to leave but at the rate the water was rising I am not sure how much longer we could have stayed anyway. If you look closely at the above photo you can see the rig in the centre distance. We drove down to Visalia to find an ATM and found ourselves on Main Street with the street cars and lunchtime shoppers. No panic though the RV turns on a sixpence and we were soon back on our way again north on 99. We turned off in Kingsburg a very pleasant Swedish town and headed north through Sanger and Centerville to Pine Flat COE campground, again built by the US army on land reclaimed after they built the Kings River Dam. Not quite as scenic as the previous campground but only $11 a night. After a quiet day on site the next day we decided to take the motorcycle into the northern part of the Park, Kings Canyon. We joined Hwy 180 and started the climb into the park, the clouds were gathering and the wind had a definite chill to it. We pushed on but it was just getting colder and colder, we mad it to 5000 feet but that was enough, we turned around and came back down to Squaw Valley to a nice warm café where we ordered soup and hot chocolate. The weather forecast for the next few days was still not good enough for another attempt at Kings Canyon so we packed up the next day and moved on.

A slight unintentional detour around Fresno and then north again on Hwy 41 to Bass Lake. We followed the scenic route signs and found ourselves on a roller coaster of a road that gradually got narrower and narrower. Eventually we caught sight of the lake surrounded by pine trees and low cloud! Even the fishermen on the lake shore looked miserable in their hooded rain capes. We checked out one campground but it was on the side of the hill and in the forest, along with the damp weather it didn’t seem to be very inviting. We carried on very slowly along the snaking road and made our way back out onto Hwy 41 and turned south, north went straight into the mountains, and found Oakhurst. What a gem, a country town but with everything you could need including a secluded river side campground only 16 miles from the southern entrance of Yosemite National Park.