California 2017 - Day 6 - Monterey to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Wednesday
Route
Today we drove for 8 hours, three hundred miles through mainly agricultural land until we reached the National Parks. One of the highlights on the route was the San Louis reservoir in Merced County. There was nothing else to stop for along the way except a fuel stop $ 31 dollars to fill the tank! until we reached a one horse town called Indian Squaw (Good job we picked up some lunch here) - which we ate on a picnic bench outside the Hume Lake ranger station.
California has officially been in drought conditions from 2014 but after excellent snow pack melt in 2017 - 163% of normal most of the drought restrictions have been lifted.
Once we were inside the National Park our first stop was the General Grant Grove, a short trail amongst some giant redwoods.
The General Grant itself has the triple honour of being the third tallest living tree in the world (268ft tall, circumference 107ft, mass of 46,600 cub ft, approx 1800 - 2700 years old), a memorial to US soldiers killed in war and the nations Christmas tree.
Another specimen of note was called the Fallen Monarch, a massive fire hollowed tree that has been used as a cabin and even stabled cavalry horses. It looks much the same today as a photograph taken 100 years ago.
It is hard to convey the scale of these giant trees but if you look closely at the left of this tree you can just see me!
We drove the 31 mile Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (Highway 180), a road that hugged the mountainside rising to an elevation of 7000 ft (2050 m) above sea level dropping to the river level which was at 4000 ft.
The drive took a while as we kept stopping to admire the views, the rock formations are amazingly beautiful and diverse. One side of the canyon is V shaped and eroded by water whilst the opposite end has been scoured by glaciers leaving a smooth wide U shaped valley.
The waterfalls are not at their best at this time of year but apparently they were very strong with snow melt this year.
The scenic drive is actually a road to nowhere so when we reached the end of the road we turned around and came back again. This was no hardship as we saw things from a different perspective.
This incredible place shows layers of sedimentary rock which have been lifted in volcanic waves and become marble.
Colin rates this drive as one of his all time top 5 along with the NC 500 West Coast and the drive from Rotorua to Napier in New Zealand.
Our room at the Wuksachi Lodge is lovely and we ate in the lodge bar, there really isn't anywhere else to go!!
The day finished with a Night Sky walk led by one of the Park Conservationists, the park has protected dark sky status and we have never seen so many bright stars and a clear milky way.
Route
Today we drove for 8 hours, three hundred miles through mainly agricultural land until we reached the National Parks. One of the highlights on the route was the San Louis reservoir in Merced County. There was nothing else to stop for along the way except a fuel stop $ 31 dollars to fill the tank! until we reached a one horse town called Indian Squaw (Good job we picked up some lunch here) - which we ate on a picnic bench outside the Hume Lake ranger station.
California has officially been in drought conditions from 2014 but after excellent snow pack melt in 2017 - 163% of normal most of the drought restrictions have been lifted.
Once we were inside the National Park our first stop was the General Grant Grove, a short trail amongst some giant redwoods.
The General Grant itself has the triple honour of being the third tallest living tree in the world (268ft tall, circumference 107ft, mass of 46,600 cub ft, approx 1800 - 2700 years old), a memorial to US soldiers killed in war and the nations Christmas tree.
Another specimen of note was called the Fallen Monarch, a massive fire hollowed tree that has been used as a cabin and even stabled cavalry horses. It looks much the same today as a photograph taken 100 years ago.
It is hard to convey the scale of these giant trees but if you look closely at the left of this tree you can just see me!
We drove the 31 mile Kings Canyon Scenic Byway (Highway 180), a road that hugged the mountainside rising to an elevation of 7000 ft (2050 m) above sea level dropping to the river level which was at 4000 ft.
The drive took a while as we kept stopping to admire the views, the rock formations are amazingly beautiful and diverse. One side of the canyon is V shaped and eroded by water whilst the opposite end has been scoured by glaciers leaving a smooth wide U shaped valley.
The waterfalls are not at their best at this time of year but apparently they were very strong with snow melt this year.
The scenic drive is actually a road to nowhere so when we reached the end of the road we turned around and came back again. This was no hardship as we saw things from a different perspective.
This incredible place shows layers of sedimentary rock which have been lifted in volcanic waves and become marble.
Colin rates this drive as one of his all time top 5 along with the NC 500 West Coast and the drive from Rotorua to Napier in New Zealand.
Our room at the Wuksachi Lodge is lovely and we ate in the lodge bar, there really isn't anywhere else to go!!
The day finished with a Night Sky walk led by one of the Park Conservationists, the park has protected dark sky status and we have never seen so many bright stars and a clear milky way.
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