When we left the Sequoia National Forest, we decided not to head right into the park, not knowing exactly what the conditions were after the cold and snow. We found a spot overlooking Lake Kaweah which was still aways from the entrance we would take into the park, but was warm and had a good signal for Mike’s work days. Clouds came and went and gave us some beautiful views over the lake.
We explored some BLM land on Case mountain, but were a little put off by how many cow patties there were, nicely rehydrated by the rain that made us delay our hike.
While Mike was working, I took the first hike in Sequoia on my own, making my way from Potwisha Campground up to Marble Falls. Rain came in about midway through the hike and I was still getting used to having more ups in our hikes, but it was still lovely.
I also started the next round of car attention. I got a chip filled in the window and talked a mechanic into looking at the transmission leak that had reappeared. We found out that we needed some new seals and the job could take an hour and a half or, more likely, 10 hours if he had to take apart the crank shaft. Yay. After the parts came in, we should be able to get it taken care of next week. Good news, the transmission fluid levels were good for us to tow Scarlet up into the mountains.
Then we were ready to make our way into the parks. This time, we planned our approach better and only took some of Google’s advice, choosing to stay on straighter roads for a good chunk of our drive north to Sequoia – making the drive only slightly longer and much less stressful. Mike’s early starts to his work days (sometimes a meeting at 6 AM our time) allowed us to take off on Wednesday afternoon and got to our planned endpoint in Sequoia National Forest, between Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park.
I had a hard time figuring out exactly what roads in the parks would be open. Most of the snow was gone, but it had snowed the week before and according to the website and info line, some areas were still closed. The one thing I didn’t think we would have to worry about was the road we would be staying on. It headed down to some larger primitive campgrounds and it sounded like there would be dispersed sites all along the road. When we got there, we found the road gated off just a little ways down and were quick to snatch up one of the few roadside spots available before the gate. It was a little slanted, but we got the trailer level and settled into our new home.
The next morning, we headed down to one of the busiest parts of the park for our first hike – the Giant Forest with the General Sherman Tree (the largest known tree in the world) and wandered from there. We were hiking at about 7,000 feet elevation and we certainly felt it. Uphills took a little more work and a few more breaks, but the hike we did didn’t have a whole lot of elevation gain. The weather was sunny and slightly cool and so still. We listened to birdsong as we walked among the giant trees with very few people around us.
This is the remains of one tree.
We wandered on the Congress Trail and then made our way down to the Crescent Meadow area to view Tharp’s log – a hollowed out fallen tree that had been made into a cabin around 1870. We started to see a few more people that looked much less hikey than us and realized that the road in (that I thought was closed) was indeed open. It was a little busier, but not bad at all. We had timed our arrival to the park well – everything was open and almost all snow-free, but very few people were in the parks.
There was one more potential stop was in the area – Moro Rock – so we started hiking there. We had been hiking in the forest, but wanted to see if we could get some vistas… and we did. We wound up not even going all the way to Moro Rock, stopping at Bobcat Point to enjoy the views and take a break before heading back toward the car a few miles away.
We had a lunch break and then decided to drive down to Moro Rock to make our way up the 400 stairs to the top. The things that entertained us up there were: the amazing views, birds that glided past us so fast that they made a whistling sound, wondering if the guy who wandered out of sight beyond the fence had fallen off the rock (he hadn’t).
The next day we decided to take an easy hike to stretch our legs and then head into Kings Canyon. Buena Vista Trail did indeed offer some good views, as well as a little snow, awesome rocks and our second sighting of a very large crack tree. I did not know that these were something that Mike kept an eye out for, but apparently he does. Crack trees are exactly what you would expect: trees that grow out of a crack in a rock. We saw some pretty big examples and discussed criteria for being a crack tree.
A short jaunt over to Grant Grove Village to view more big trees and find some decent tasting water and then we ventured into Kings Canyon. The drive in was full of vistas as we went over mountains and slowly made our way down toward the canyon. It got even more beautiful when we were low enough to start following the course of Kings River. The river was super strong and full of rapids and whitewater with all of the spring snowmelt contributing to it.
We stopped at Grizzly Falls for lunch and some time to behold and then continued into the canyon.
Near the end of the canyon, we stopped at Roaring Falls to behold and then hiked down to Zumwalt Meadow. This was our first time hiking amongst some recent fire damage (last year). In spite of that, there were views galore and we sweated our way out and back in the first bit of heat we had experienced in a while.
The next day we headed out for what should have been a fairly average hike for us. We had somewhat acclimated to the elevation, but the hike wound up being kind of challenging. Mike had reinjured a big toenail which was now quite purple and didn’t feel great. He tried to do sandals as much as possible to forego any more abuse of both big toenails in shoes or boots. Unfortunately, that meant bad things for his feet on this hike. He bruised a heel and had to find a walking stick to help him and the trail was a little tricky as a lot of it was covered in treacherous pinecones (Sequoia pinecones are quite hard and round) and sticks that just got in the way. He bled a little and hobbled a little and made it through the hike.
We took a day of rest and recovery with a little cooking and catching up with family included and then headed out the next day on our last hike in the area. We had been getting progressively later starts in Sequoia as it was quite chilly in the morning and the trails didn’t seem to get busy until late morning or early afternoon. We delayed the hike a bit as I waited to hear back from the mechanic about scheduling the truck for work. We only had signal at our campsite; if we went anywhere in either park, the signal disappeared. Mike eventually said we should just go which was good as I didn’t wind up talking to the mechanic until I called back at before closing that afternoon.
One more waterfall was on our agenda – Tokepah Falls. We headed back down south and in the Lodgpole campground found quite a few cars in he parking lot. It looked it was a popular trail. We did wind up wearing masks more and stepping off the trail for others to pass quite a bit more than on any other trial we had been on. The trail followed the Tokepah River up to it’s head and was a delight all the way along. The river was beautiful and the terrain became more rocky as we progressed toward the headwaters.
When we got to the end of the trail, we climbed out on the rocks to enjoy the view and the mist from the falls. We also wound up enjoying some close-ish encounters with marmots. My brother Dan had warned me about the trouble that marmots can cause in the park. Apparently, they like to chew on radiator hoses and wiring in cars and are quite the nuisance in the Mineral King area. Luckily, we had not planned any time there (I don’t think it was even open yet) and only seen one marmot skulking under the trailer at one point. We hoped that our moth balls were enough to keep any interested marmots away from the truck. We were quite happy to instead get to view a few marmots around the falls, sunning and creeping around and under the big rocks we lounged on.
At the end of the day, we took a very short walk from our campsite to watch the sunset. It was a lovely way to end the day.
The next day, I headed into Visalia for an appointment for the truck while Mike stayed back at the trailer to work. We needed a new seal on the transmission and I had found a mechanic that was able to fit us in. Unfortunately, he was not the best communicator so I was never quite sure when he was getting to our truck, what was going on, or how long it would take. Oh, well beggars can’t be choosers.
It took two night in the Visalia Motel 6 before I got back to a fixed truck. Unfortunately, I did not know it would take two nights, so I had to check out and wander around town trying to find a cool spot to waste time. Downside, I was rather hot, sweaty and bored most of each day (computering, reading, and talking on the phone to friends and family who don’t work during the day can only go so far. Upside, I got endless water and air-conditioning at the motel, as well as pretty good Chinese food just down the block that I ate while catching up with some shows on Hulu.
Luckily, mechanic Jose had not had to take apart the transfer case to get to the transmission, so while the job took a long time, at least it didn’t cost nearly as much as we thought it might. We spent more on the motel room than the fix!
Then back to Mike to pack up and head toward Yosemite.