Going Home

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

With a soft drizzle on the roof overnight, the sleeping was good. But around 6 a.m. it changed to flakes. What a wet mess when all we wanted to do was enjoy a nice trip! Maybe we will rethink this late October travel. Last year it was hurricane Sandy chasing us out, and this year we again got chased out by weather.

Barney talked to a guy in the rest area that had come down from Idaho, and he said all the high spots on the road were snowy. He was going across Donner, pulling a trailer, and just didn’t know what he was going into!

We went on a couple hours to Winnemucca where we stopped for some breakfast, then just hit the road home and didn’t run into any more weather.

It sounds like there was nasty weather at our back with damaging high winds and lots of snow, and we are happy to be out of there and home for a while.

It was a different kind of trip than our usual, and we only got a few park stamps. I’m sure it won’t be too long before one of us is getting the itch to go again.

What a difference a day makes!

Monday, October 28, 2013

The elevation change had done us some good. We were about 2500 feet lower than in Sequoia, and the precipitation on the campers overnight was rain. We were in a spot under the trees, and it dripped kind of heavy on the roofs overnight, but we were cozy. We always feel bad for the tenters in that kind of weather.

After some breakfast, we went back up the road about a mile to the Wawona VC where we got a couple of stamps in our books. The ranger there was less than encouraging! To go on into the Yosemite valley we had to go up a couple thousand feet, and it was snowing and the road was narrow with sheer drop offs. Chains or 4 wheel drive were required. Not a problem since we both have 4 wheel drive, but it did not sound inviting. To go back out the way we came in would only be about a thousand foot climb, but he had come in that way with 4 wheel drive and still spun out along the way.

We decided not to just stay put, but to back track and get out of this mess as soon as we could. We took it very slow, and passed several busy chain up areas for those going the opposite direction. The snow plows were busy on the park roads, and at the last chain up area we saw chains were required, with several state troopers to enforce them. It must have been getting a lot worse behind us, and we were happy to get out of it.

Back down in the valley, the sun was shining and it was warm, but we didn’t waste any time in shooting through the area and up over Donner pass. It was snowing there as well, and the sanding trucks were out spitting little rocks at us, but were keeping the roads cleared.

We at last stopped on the other side for something to eat, and then went on to the first rest area we found, but it was another 80 miles. Again driving after dark, but at least we knew where we were going, and it wasn’t snowing any more.

Sequoia National Park

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Our first stop this morning was the Foothills Visitor Center in Sequoia National Park. After getting our books stamped and looking around the center, we went across the street to the picnic area and fixed some breakfast. The sun felt great as we enjoyed eating outside. We soon had some company in the trees, and had four or five acorn woodpeckers wanting some of our food. They were somewhat aggressive and wished they could get inside the campers for some food.

After breakfast we went on up the road that is not advised for vehicles over 22 feet long. We are only a foot or two longer than that, and we were not prohibited, so on we went.  It wasn’t too scary because there were nice rock guardrails, and lots of trees so you couldn’t see any sheer drop off. It was a long slow grind to the top! There were many very tight switchbacks, but we took it slow and made it just fine. We used lots of turn outs to let traffic go by us and some just to stop and see the sights such as tunnel rock, where you could see the old road had gone through. That would have been the end of our travels without the road going around it.

Soon we came to the Giant Forest section of the park. There are several groves of sequoias throughout the park, but this is the most accessible.

We stopped at the Giant Forest museum and VC where the Sentinel tree is located. There is a line in the pavement that shows how far it would be to climb it. There were some interesting displays in the VC, one being a jar smaller than a quart mason jar that had 91,000 sequoia seeds in it. Another was a large wheel that shows how little chance there is for a sequoia to survive when it sprouts from a seed.

The sequoia is larger around, but the redwood trees are taller.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped at another VC for a stamp, but it was closed for the season, so we went on to Kings Canyon NP. We were very fortunate to be there the day we were because the next day they expected snow. While in the Kings Canyon VC we saw that forecast, and decided to get on down to a lower elevation while we had the chance, rather than find a camping spot up there. We did not take the one hour drive out along the canyon, but scurried on down the road toward Fresno.

We stopped at a Wendy’s in Clovis for something to keep us going, and then took 41 out toward Yosemite National Park. It was dark as we entered the park, and the sign at the entrance said Tioga pass was closed. We had hoped to get across the next morning. There was a campground about five miles down the road from the entrance, so we found that and did our best to wind up in a real campsite in the complete darkness! Not a light in the whole campground area, and really hard to do by headlights, but we got settled in and crashed. It had been a long day!