Location: California
When: End of June
Miles traveled: 1741.6
Price of gas: $4.05 to 5.39
Interest: Big trees
High point: RV made chocolate chip cookies from camp host!
Low
point: The smell of vault toilets drifting over to the campsite in the morning.
Two things learned: I prefer sand beaches to rock beaches. & Don't leave citronella candles sideways in hot car, even if they have a lid.
California is a long state, and I drove the entire distance. I started at the southern end, visiting Silver Strand beach and National City Swap Meet near San Diego. Then I worked my way north to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park and stayed there for four days. Finally, I reached the northern end and visited the coast and Redwood NP. Exploring tide pools one morning peaked my desire to visit more of them in Oregon.
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Beach "glitter" at bottom
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National City Swap Meet (NCSW) was not as interesting as the Elephant Trunk Flea Market (ETFM) I attended in CT, so I'll not go into details. NCSW had less variety than ETFM, and I only bought lunch at the event. More interesting was Silver Strand beach. The sand looked like it contained glitter! Ebbing waves on the beach picked up the "glitter", making the edge of the water look like liquid silver! On the bay side, abundant hermit crabs populated the small holes in the sand. They quickly hid when I moved near them. I enjoyed watching them wave their claws in the air and walking around.
The southern entrance to Sequoia National Park was closed, so I had to use Big Stump entrance in Kings Canyon. It was an hour drive from that entrance to my camp spot in Lodgepole. Not wanting to drive over an hour to a grocery store, I ate the food I had on hand during my time in the park. I forgot to plan for this, so by the end of the four days I was eating strange food combinations. But I was not so desperate that I broke into my emergency food rations.
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Tokopah falls
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Tokopah Falls is a easy 3.4 mi round trip hike to a large, hard to photograph, waterfall. The water comes from the High Sierra and cascades down the Tokopah Valley into a river. The tall granite mountains are beautiful with pine trees and occasional snow piles. Large rodents called Marmots were also at the falls. They look a bit like groundhogs, but are considered to be large ground squirrels. Another easy hike is in the Giant Sequoia Grove. General Sherman, the largest tree by volume, is here along with other big trees. Giant Sequoia trees have reddish bark that feels soft and is slightly squishy. My favorite Sequoias were along the Big Tree trail that circumnavigates a swampy meadow. The three trees stood near each other, indicating that long time ago a hot fire burned in that spot releasing their seeds at the same time. The wet meadow provides the trees with a lot of water and sunlight they need to grow so large, but none of the trees grow in the meadow. Their shallow roots don't provide enough support in very wet ground. The meadow was also filled with ladybugs. They were annoying, until I accepted them and enjoyed the beauty of so many in one location.
By the time I arrived at Redwood NP, I was a bit worn out. Not super interested in looking at more trees, I hiked only one trail. The park also felt harder to navigate for my tired mind. I think travel burnout started to make it's presence felt around this time, and it was more prevalent during my time in Oregon.
From the ground, Redwood trees don't look taller than Sequoias. It is also hard to compare the two when they are not next to each other. Their bark is not as red, and does not feel as soft and squishy. But when standing in their midst, Redwoods feel just as large as Giant Sequoias.
The morning I drove out of CA for OR, I stopped at Sue-Meg state park during low tide. A park ranger recommended it as a good place to explore tide pools. It was amazing, and I decided I would go tide pooling in Oregon too. Because I went multiple days while in OR, I'll write about my CA tide pool experience in OR's blog post. Something for you to look forward to!
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top of Redwood tree
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Redwood tree
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 | The frequency which I drove into and out of tsunami hazard areas made it seem like it would be easy to get higher than a tsunami. Not at all like movies portraying skyscraper waves that cover that height for miles into a city. Honestly, I don't know what's a realistic size for tsunami waves.
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Giant Sequoia with smaller ones behind it
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Also Snowplant
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| Snowplant |
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Orchards in the distance that I drove through on the way to Sequoia NP. I passed orange, grape, and other orchards. The oranges were better than one at grocery stores. It was strange to see so many green trees with trimmed flat tops, I would guess for
machine clearance. Golden hills and fields that looked uncultivated by man juxtaposed with green orchards was also strange.
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