Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

Trip Start Jan 04, 2008
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Trip End Dec 17, 2008


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Flag of United States  , California,
Sunday, November 30, 2008

We woke the next morning to find we were still in a blanket of fog so headed to the supermarket for some supplies while it cleared.  As we'd done an extra bit of driving the night before the entrance to the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park was only 30miles from Vasilia so we were soon there to pay our $10 for a 7 day pass - bargain.  Maud had done the rancid fog driving the night before so now it was my turn.  The road was very windy and most bends could only be taken at a crawl which wasn't too much fun. Again some of the higher roads were closed due to snow so we headed to the viewpoint at Moro Rock.  Once we'd climbed to the top we had a great panorama of the snowcapped peaks of the Kaweah Range.
 
That afternoon we went to see the General Sherman tree which is the largest (by volume) tree in the world and it was pretty massive.  It's about 275ft high and has a base circumference of over 100ft with a diameter of 36.5ft.  A few months back a large branch broke off after being hit by lightning and that was bigger than most trees that you would usually see.
 
For the rest of the day we headed off to see Kings Canyon which meant a lovely drive through more massive sequoia trees then a steep descent to Junction View where you could see where the two rivers in the canyon meet.  We couldn't travel any further into the canyon as the road was again shut for the winter - which seemed a shame as there wasn't any snow here at all.  Having had our fill of sightseeing for the day we decided that we'd stay in the park until sunset and then take a couple of days out for a bit of a rest.  We decided that Palm Springs sounded rather nice so after a beautiful sunset we set off south back towards the warmer weather.
 
In our original calculations we thought that the drive would take about 5 hours but didn't factor in the blanket of fog.  So instead of arriving at about 10pm as expected we ended up crawling along, unable to see much in front of us for the best part of two hours (still without fog lights).  We finally arrived in Palm Springs at 12.30am.  Thankfully we had stopped on the way and booked a hotel on Expedia but now - both kn*ckered and not very happy we spent about an hour trying to find the hotel.  They all looked the same and most were in gated complexes with security guards - none of whom knew where anywhere was.  We eventually found our resort and realized we had driven past it about 4 times, checked in and hit the sack.

We awoke the next day to lovely sunshine and warm weather and decided that the best way to spend the day would be to take Maud to the outlet mall for some retail therapy followed by a good curry.  After a couple of nights in Palm Springs we were then ready to hit the road again and carry on the tour of California..... Morro Rock - we climbed it later
Morro Rock - we climbed it later
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