November 21st 2012
Ridgecrest - Fresno
We woke up in Ridgecrest
California. Average night (or
slightly worse) and pretty cold morning. We got gasoline (there were troubles
with that), the pump was going really slow. And … some other small irritating
things (headache). We were heading to Giant Sequoia Forest and as well to
Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National
Park. Long day. It was fine, we had our plan and
just followed the road. There was nothing special, for a while California was really
ugly and boring. It was slowly changing and then we started seeing Joshua
trees.
At Isabella
Lake, we took a turn and
were heading to the forest (or at least we were hoping), as there was limited
number of signs. The landscape got more interesting, we made quick stop and
look at the lake from the higher point.
This is what J. found:
We were following the river, later it got really nice and
interesting. The river is running pretty wild and surrounding growth was still
in fall colors. Really nice.
We stopped few times, looked around and enjoyed our trip (so
far). At one point (at that time, we left the river behind), we were at
intersection, that was really confusing. We did not have really good map, so at
the end, we drove back a bit and found some people to ask. We got some useful
advice and were heading into the national forest (or continued in it). The road
was narrow and really twisty. Along the road, we discovered the trail of 100
giants. We stopped (empty parking lot) and walked on the trail. We saw some
huge sequoias and as well one, that fell down and closed the trail. It was
awesome.
Those are our greetings from 100 giants trail:
Well, the road was narrower then we thought and we were
going really slow. There was some snow along the road (I guess in couple of
weeks this road will be closed). It was really nice drive, still fall colors,
but the road … not nice.
It was hilly and it felt like never ending story (road).
Just going, turning, going up, turning, going down … and no end.
We missed the turn, so we decided to take different road and
head to Sequoia Park via highway. It was longer, but
possibly slightly faster. So we drove down (to probably few hundred feet
elevation) and got on highway. It was nice farm country. There was still some
fruit (possibly lemons) on trees and it was sunny. J. talked to her parents and
it was snowing in Michigan.
And … surprise … we were going up. It was interesting to
observe how the landscape was changing. We got some postcards in visitor’s
center and were told, that it is three hours to get to Fresno (our plan for the night). Ok, so we
continued heading up. There was road construction and we got stuck there for
about five minutes waiting for green light.
There were already some roads (and facilities, campgrounds)
closed for the season (winter). Still, we were surprised, how many people was
there (probably nothing compare to high summer season). One of the top
attraction in this park was The Sherman tree. It was giant sequoia (the biggest
tree in world by volume). There were some signs for shuttle, smaller parking
lot (in summer just for handicapped), so at the end we parked along the road
and went to see the tree.
As I said, we saw many roads closed and even the signs were
covered:
The road got better and we were moving faster. We were as
well pretty close to the evening. The drive was really nice and the views were
incredible. If it would be our cup of coffee, it would be really nice to camp
out for a week or so.
We made one more small detour to see Nation’s Christmas
tree. If I remember correctly, it is General Grant. It was another nice part of
the park.
After that, we were just heading to Fresno. Slow descent to the valley, it got
dark and I was not really happy to drive in it. The sky was changing colors and
was pretty. Otherwise, being dark, there was nothing for us to do but to drive
and get motel. We found a cluster of cheap motels in the city near the freeway,
so we were heading there. It was pretty easy to find and get there, but the
streets heading there were pretty scary and sad (like Detroit). We saw motels, we saw several
prostitutes, we saw many homeless people and J. was not comfortable with the
area, so we decided to head on the other side of town. After exiting freeway,
we stopped for dinner (Mexican restaurant). And motel. Night. Just fine.
