Bill and Eileen's Travels: Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Today is Monday 6/9/2014. We arrived in Visalia, Ca. a city of about 120,000 people southeast of the National Parks. The town is mainly supported by agricultural businesses in the area and it is a very nice town. We arrived Saturday late in the afternoon after a 400 mile ride. Getting out of Death Valley proved to be a little more difficult than we thought. The most direct route was over some very steep mountains so we opted to "go around". This was the correct decision but it added about 90 miles onto our trip. Needless to say it was a long, hot day.

Yesterday we chilled if you can do that in 105 degree heat. We went to church at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. This church was quite different than our experience last week. The parish has something like 1500 families and the mass was jammed. Nice people.

Today we left early and drove to Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP's. Visalia is about 40 miles from the Ash Mountain entrance in the south end of the park. We climbed from 300 feet to about 6100 feet to our first stop at the Giant Forest Museum. The road up this mountain was very challenging with switchback after switchback. The views just got better and better. Absolutely beautiful. These mountains are unbelievable.

We entered the first Giant Sequoia grove just as we arrived at the Museum. After visiting the Museum we drove toward Moro Rock stopping at Tunnel Log (You can drive through it) and other beautiful groves of these giant trees. The last stop on this loop was Moro Rock. Moro Rock is a granite dome at 6,725 feet, with a 1/4 mile staircase that goes up about 300ft. When you get to the top of this climb you can see for a hundred plus miles in all directions. The pictures are below but you can't capture the beauty of this place. Well worth the climb.

After a nice lunch at Wuksachi Village we backtracked and took a short hike to the General Sherman Tree. This tree is estimated to be 2200 years old and stands a mere 275 feet tall. In volume of total wood the Sequoias are the largest trees on earth and The General Tree is the largest of them all. The Sequoia is shorter than the Redwood trees found on the coast of California. In all other areas the Sequoia's are older, weight more, thickest bark, and larger in diameter. In all respects this is an incredible living thing.

We kicked around the mountain in other areas and went down another, less windy, route. The round trip was about 130 miles and the scenery in all areas was unbelievable.

We returned from the 72 degree woods to the 103 degree campground. I think the temperatures in this drought stricken area are hitting new highs this week. I guess were just lucky.

Tomorrow we leave for Yosemite NP were we meet the Ekman's for a few days of camping and exploring. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone. Can't wait.

Life is good!!!!!