Sequoia National Park

The only destination on this whole trip unrelated to friends or family was the sequoias in central California. Jon made the reservation at the motel before we left home, not knowing if we would really hit all our marks to get here on this very day. Well, somehow we did.

We drove through the Central Valley on Route 99 because of some unexpected detour. We saw miles and miles of almond trees, with massive irrigation systems installed.  There were also big orchards of lemons and oranges and tangerines. They really know what they are doing here, in terms of managing crops on a monumental scale. Jon looked up the crops that are grown in Merced County. It is one of the agricultural capitals of the valley -- milk, eggs, almonds, corn silage, beef, tomatoes, peppers. At this time of year, they are pruning trees.  The tractors and implements are parked for the winter, and they are huge and varied.  

Oranges

Big equipment

Almonds

All along this trip, I have been remembering the many times our family drove cross country in the winter, and how all of us kids felt about any delays. Our father used to like to visit equipment lots to look at all the machinery. We complained bitterly.  Our parents sometimes stopped at farms to talk to farmers. Drove us crazy.  Today, just looking out the window, I thought about how uninterested we were as we drove through amazing farmland. Now Jon and I barely even listen to the radio. We just look out the window and think about all the decisions that were made, all the ecological realities, all the people who do all this work. Plus all the incredible engineering that goes into all the roads and bridges. Cross country trips are wasted on the young, except for the time the family gets to spend together. We old people have lived enough to be interested in everything we see. And now we have the internet to consult if we really want to know something. In the olden days, we had the Information Please Almanac and we could look up the population and state bird and state song and other tidbits, but this was a limited source compared to nowadays.

Before we went into the Sequioa National Park, we went to a sandwich place that was so highly rated that we would have driven many miles out of our way to get to it. It was right on the road to the park, though. The sandwiches were delicious. We were sitting near two elderly ladies and one was explaining to the other one about all the reasons that Trump was the right man for the job, how she really trusts men who have been in the military the most (?!?), how climate change has not really been shown to be real, how electric cars will never work. The other lady was not agreeing with everything, but she was letting the right wing one go on and on. 

We headed up into the park and were glad that we already had a National Parks pass so we didn't have to make any decision about paying $35 to get in.  All handled. They told us that chains were required when we got up to the icy part. Okay. The drive was a steep climb. We started at about 300 feet elevation and went up a road that rivals the road to Hana or parts of the Amalfi Coast. Steep hillsides above and below, sharp switchbacks. Much more climbing than either of those roads.  

 We got up to 7000 feet. I was not psychologically prepared for all that zigging and zagging, but at least there were not many others on the road. We never saw the place where chains were really needed, plus it was over 40 degrees, so that was good. Eventually we started to see tall, straight, brown sequoias sprinkled in with other equally straight but less massive trees. The trees got bigger and bigger. There were lots of burned trees from a recent fire.

Finally we got to the parking lot closest to the biggest tree in the world.  We walked with other tourists on a snowy path to the one called "General Sherman Tree." These trees are so tall that you just can't really tell how tall they are. This is the biggest tree by volume (52,500 cubic feet) and weight (1,385 tons) and it is 2200 years old. 103 feet around at the base, and it stays big the whole way up. Not the oldest tree but it is growing in a good spot so it grew bigger than other older trees. Jon kept saying that they should tell us how much wood would come out of one of those trees -- how many board feet? They are majestic. They grow in clumps, often, so there can be four or five of these huge trees all clustered together. It was worth the drive to see them.

As my gift to Jon, I took a nap on the way down. I am sure he had a much nicer time swooping around all those curves without my attention.

We might be the only people in this motel. The town is empty. We tried to go to a Mexican restaurant but it was closed, so we went to the grocery store next door and got supplies for sandwiches. All is well.