Thursday 10th June – Plantation Inn

Lemon Grove to Bakersfield

We left The Plantation Inn after a stunning breakfast of sweet chilies in an omelet pie type of thing. Said goodbye to Scott and Marie and headed off to Bakersfield. We were only heading to Bakersfield so that we could get ready for the flight to Australia, wash and repack the bags. It would have been awesome to stay longer at the plantation inn and see more of the area around there but I felt that driving all the way to LA in one day would have been a bit much.

Min and I did some shopping in Bakersfield. and I have to say that without my iPhone we would have been lost a few times and never would have found the stores that we were looking for. We went to a Big 5 sports store and Min bought a nice pair of black runners. I was wandering around and discovered that sports stores sell guns. Not just any guns either but Automatic rifles and pump action shotguns as well as hand guns.

We then went to Action Sports Store, they didn’t sell guns but they did sell bikes very nice bikes. I wanted to buy at least 3 but, you know transporting them back to Oz would have been a little hard (let’s not talk about the price either). I ended up buying a long sleeve thermal base layer made from silk and merino wool. Also in the carpark outside Action Sports we saw a Humvee or Hummer H1 which is a stupidly sized 'car' that was never really sold in Oz. We only get the baby siblings the Hummer H2 and H3 here in Australia.

We also stopped at a Wal Mart, as Min wanted to show me how big they were. They are sort of like a Big W and Woolies rolled into one, only 10 times the size, and they sell Guns.

One bonus of the trip was that we got to eat at a Denny’s Diner again. I ordered a pan fried dish and the meat was so awesome. Really tender and only $5.50 how can they sell food that cheep, it’s just ridicules. Min got something from the $4 value menu then with a milkshake for me and a drink for Min the total bill came to about $12 Crazy.

We did laundry then went to the hotel and repacked our bags ready for the next day and the final drive to LA.

Thursday 10th June – Plantation Inn

Lemon Grove

Kings canyon (long drive really beautiful scenery) is to the north of Sequoia National Park and has some spectacular scenery. It did take us over an hour to get to the beginning of the Canyon though.

On the drive through the national park and into Kings Canyon was spectacular, steep cliffs covered in an interesting type of Yukka. Amazing bushes covered in white flowers, all with an amazing canyon with Kings River at the bottom.

It took over another hour to get through to the middle of the national park. At the end is a walk along King River just before it branches into 2 separate creeks. We were headed along the Mist falls trail which walks up the canyon then up to a spectacular waterfall. The area is very open woodland with the occasional Giant Sequoia but none of them were very giant. It seems at this lower altitude and with the dry sandy soil at the bottom of the Canyon they were struggling a little. We did see lots of Squirrels though and one in particular had the largest and bushiest tail ever. I mean he (We think it was a boy) had a tail that was bigger than he was. We stopped for a quick lunch of muesli (Granola they call it) bars and water. Min was a bit worried that Bears were going to try and eat her as she was the one carrying the food. While walking we met some people going the other way. They briefly mentioned that we should watch out for Rattle Snakes as they had seen 2 already on the walk. By this time on the trail the canyon had gotten narrower and the soil wetter so the trees and shrubs were much denser than before and closer to the path. We decided not to do the walk up the steep trail on one side of the canyon to Mist Falls and just do the loop at the bottom of the canyon. This was mainly due to there probably being more snakes up on the warmer sunnier more rocky Mist Falls trail, and also I wasn’t feeling up to going up steep slopes again. There was a small problem with our choice though, the snows had all melted in the previous week and had caused the river to rise blocking the loop track. So we happily turned around and wandered back down the path we had just come along. We didn’t see any rattle snakes even though Min kept a sharp eye out for them, what we did see though was Bear Poo. Min finally has proof (in the form of a Photo people) that Bears do Shit in the woods.

After our little adventure along the Mist Falls Trail we decided to have another last look at the Giant Giant Sequoia trees so we drove to General Grant tree. As you’d expect from the 2nd largest tree in the world it was huge. Again huge in a sense that words just don’t do it justice. Due to the higher altitude, the late afternoon and the lack of sunshine on anything but the top of the General Grant tree the temperature had dropped rather significantly by the time we were walking to the General Grant tree. Min quickly got cold and was shivering by the time we made it back to the trusty Dodge Charger. The walk around the General Grant Tree is awesome as there is a tree that has fallen down and you can walk through the length of the trunk. With between .5 to 1m of wood on the outside I was able to stand fully upright and walk through the 50m length of the tree. They truly are astounding plants!

We went to the Cider mill for dinner. With a name like the Cider Mill Lewis was expecting English type fare. Turns out that a Mexican couple owned the restaurant and it served Mexican food. Good food just not really what we were expecting from the name of the place. Then it was home and Jacuzzi under the stars again – lovely Lewis was big and brave and jumped into the pool (well rolled as it was only 4.5ft deep) the pool was 20 Celsius then climbed back in the Jacuzzi… there was no way I was doing it as I had only just finally got warm after the walk to the big tree earlier in the afternoon! Organized accommodation at Bakersfield  for when we leave in the morning

Wednesday 9th June – Plantation Inn

Lemon Grove

After an amazing breakfast at the plantation inn (Marie Cooked Dutch Cradles) Min and I headed into Sequoia National Park to see the giant trees. We had already seen Sequoias at Yosemite so we were not prepared to be as impressed as we were. The landscape is rugged and mountainous but we had seen Yosemite which has some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve seen anywhere. The park had restaurants, visitor centres and a post office but Yosemite had had those as well as millions more people. If you come to Sequoia National Park you come for the trees, nothing can prepare you for their enormity.

We had briefly popped in at the visitors center to find out walking trails etc and were informed that there was road works that only let traffic through on the hour and if we left in the next 5 minutes it should be right. So we quickly bought a map and left. Travel was up a steep windy road, apparently Americans are not very confident (one may say timid) doing 5-10 mile an hour around corners that were not even hair pin (it was more frustrating as we needed to make it to the road works –poor Lewis I was frustrated and was only the passenger but I had to just ignore it and look at the view. We just made the road works so got through without having to wait another hour and headed to the tree named General Sherman.

General Sherman is the largest living tree by weight and volume in the World. It is only 82m high but the girth of the tree is enormous and it stays incredibly think until near the top, it is truly a sight to see. The top was damaged at some stage but each year it adds more wood to the trunk (each year it adds enough wood for another normal size tree). Later wandering around another part of the forest we forgot how big the Sequoias are and started to think that some of those trees were big again. Then we headed on the Congress trail and saw some of the large named Sequoias again and remembered that the other trees might be large but nothing else had the same size and presence (they only name the biggest tress and have stopped the practice of naming trees). The photos will not do them justice, our memories will not do them justice they are just living monoliths.

It was well past lunch so we headed back to café in the park, Then we walked Bear hill looking for bears but we didn’t see any. We did however see chipmunks and Squirrels and naughty birds (stellas jay). Lewis “helped the sequoias to spread their seed” aka was throwing the pine cones as they only fell under the trees….I kept explaining they had been there doing their thing for thousands of years and probably did not need help but…. For such large trees they have little tiny pine cones.

Went to Morro Rock which turned out to be slightly more up than expected and with my (Lewis) sore legs I didn’t relish the walk. It turned out to be a really nice walk and not hard at all. We saw naughty lizards and there was an amazing view at the end of the trail. Spent some time looking around at the top and then some more time photographing the lizards and debating what they were (we think cameleons as they had the funny eye thing and changed bright bright blue under their throat and tummy when cranky or displaying or having just eaten) one ate a big termite ant thing and turned bright blue as he was wiping his mouth on the rock… very cool (Western Fence lizard – also known as blue bellied lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis).

On the way home we saw a black bear crossing the road heading to bear hill. See the hill did live up to its name, we were on a narrow road and the bear was moving fast so only chance for one photo. But it was very exciting.

We ate at the riverview tavern (a local hangout) once again overlooking the river. Not the best singers but at least there was a live performance from local musicians. Whilst we were eating a little panicked baby came steaming up the rocks away from the rapids and was peeping with alarm running all through under peoples chairs. One of the singers on a break caught it and another local put it in a box whilst looking for its mum (probably got washed down stream a bit in all the water) we hope they found a home for it – it was only little and still fluffy.

Then headed home, bought some Mikes hard lemonade so Lewis can try it and had a Jacuzzi out under the stars (very lovely). They rave about the number of stars that are visible due to the lack of light pollution… there were not as many as you can see is Aus especially if you are out somewhere near Dubbo or similar.

Tuesday 8th June – Yosemite Riverside Inn

Big Oak Flats to Lemon Grove

Time to leave Yosemite and head south to Sequoia National Park. Trouble was that we hadn’t been able to book accommodation through complete lack of planning and no phone and dodgy internet plus spending long days at Yosemite. This all meant that we were starting the day not really knowing where we would end up.

First off was breakfast provided by the riverside inn. Quite a nice breakfast and there was a lovely introduction from a little girl who announced “I’m having chocolate milk” as soon as I walked in the door. The family turned out to be from just near Santa Barbera and also hadn’t booked their rooms a year in advance so they were staying outside the park as well. Staying outside the park turned out to be good for them too, cheaper accommodation and food and still getting the natural wonders of Yosemite.

The plan was to drive down through Yosemite, out to the south, get phone reception and call some hotels to book a room for the next 2 nights on the edge of Sequoia national park. After a disasterous attempt to use a public phone (involving the phone eating millions of quarters, motor bikes starting up right next to us just when someone finally answered) we gave up and decided to keep driving until we had mobile phone reception. After a couple of places telling us that they were full we called The Plantation Inn Bed and Breakfast (thank goodness for the AAA accommodation book as everything listed in lonely planet was well and truly full and all run by the same company). Scott the owner was really helpful and he let us have his best room at a very good price and then explained exactly how to find them – just what we needed it was good to finally get a friendly voice rather than front desk of large corporations. Following the highways took us through Fresno, now we have been through Fresno and Modesto. If you have seen Monsters Vs Aliens you would know those names. With only one stop at a Denny’s Diner for min to get all you can eat Pancakes we made it to the plantation inn before dinner time (in Min’s defense it was well after 3 and we were eating lunch).

The Plantation Inn turned out to be a Gone with the Wind themed place which Min later told me she knew about (figured Lew didn’t really need this info up front as I was just relieved that we had accommodation). Despite this it was an amazing place to stay. Scott was a wonderful host and Marie was a fantastic Cook. You really looked forward to the Breakfasts that they served.

We had dinner that night at the Gateway Inn, right beside a fast and angry river (Rapids really did explain the river) apparently the snow had all decided to melt at once a week before.

Monday 7th June – Yosemite Riverside Inn

big oak flats

Lewis started out a little slow. Got up at 7:30

Breakfast at hotel. Coffee was a bit bad but they had a sign saying ‘don’t complain about the coffee you’ll be old and week one day too’

Drove into Yosemite and were set to go on the Yosemite creek falls walk to upper falls. However I was a bit concerned about our lack of food. I had to force min to buy a pack of 12 “Granola” bars. Min made me pledge that if she was eaten by bears I would be the one responsible.

The walk started off flat but got steep quick when we started heading up to the upper falls. We got spectacular views of the falls from below and above, well half way up any way. With the lower falls and half the upper falls walk we were walking for about 4.5 hours.

We got some amazing views of the valley on the upper falls walk. Min was very glad that I made her take food I was as well for that matter. I had started the walk off with a sore foot and feeling a little faint. After a bit of steep climbing a break to drink water and eat a bar I actually felt much better in the head. What did get worse though was my foot.

After the walk min and I got Cappuccino smoothies. Then we went into the Ansell Adams photography gallery then to the store for a memento or two.

I made min eat something again. Then we decided to head out of the park and maybe do a small walk to see a grove of sequoias on the way out. Saw a mother bear and 2 cubs on the way out.

The ‘small’ walk when we got to the trailhead the sign said it was a 3 hour walk. It was 5 in the afternoon so we really didn’t have time for a 3 hour walk. We said walk in for half an hour then out and home. Well we made it all the way to the Sequoia grove in just over half an hour so we got to see the giants of the forest.

When you’re away from the Sequoias and you see large trees you forget how big the sequoias and Redwoods are. You think to yourself “that is a large tree”. Then you see it next to one of the Sequoias and you realize that the Sequoias are large on a different scale. They make the giants of other forests look small. The largest of the other trees would only be half as high and a fraction of the girth of the Sequoias.

Hotel shower then dinner at the same place as yesterday.