Thursday 19th October 2017
Because of the temperature dropping the further North we go, we have decided to head inland towards Sequoia National Park today. We did not come on this adventure for cold weather – we can have that at home – so need to head back towards the warm weather!!
We headed across country and entered the National Park at the ‘Three Rivers’ entrance. The road into the National Park is called ‘Generals Highway’ and climbs steadily up to 8000 ft above sea-level at Moro Rock. We were driving with the mountain rising steeply up on one side of the road and falling deeply on the other. It twisted and turned up the mountain side where we visited:
- Slick Rock Recreation Area
- Sequoia National Park and visitors centre where we learnt about the rock formations and what flora, fauna and wildlife to look out for. Granite – which lines most of the road, was created from magma deep in the earth. Marble – which is white and grey and dotted with spiky yucca plants. Heat and pressure metamorphosed limestone, changing it into marble. Schist – which is a reddish colour and easily breaks into layers. Schist starts off as layers of mud and hardens it into sedimentary rock. Heat and pressure metamorphosed it into Schist.
- Tunnel Rock – a huge piece of granite supported above the ground and forming a tunnel. Julie had to climb to the top just to prove she could!
- Hospital Rock. This is a sacred site for the local Californian Indian tribes whose ancestors lived and died here. It is a huge rock with pictographs drawn on one side.
- The Community Kitchen – this is where native American people cooked. They had everything they needed: water from the river; rocks and sticks to shape into bowls and utensils, acorns to pound into flour to make soups and cakes and The California Bay tree for flavouring. The holes in the rocks were hollowed out to make this possible.
- Moro Rock – A huge piece of Granite visible from the foothills of the National Park.
- The General Sherman Tree. It is said to be ‘the biggest tree in the world’ because of the volume of its trunk. It is dead at the top so the trunk no longer gets taller. However, each year the trunk grows wider adding enough wood to equal another good-sized tree.
Here are some views from our drive through the park.
Friday 20th October 2017
We awoke having had a good nights sleep and decided to travel, once again, into Sequoia National Park to see some of the sights we had not had time to see yesterday. We headed into the park in the opposite direction this time, via Fresno and along the I – 180 through Squaw Valley. Unfortunately, as we headed back up the mountain it became shrouded in cloud. It was like driving through pea soup. With a steep drop to our right we followed the white line on the edge of the road and the double yellow lines up through the middle.
Eventually, at around 5000 ft up the road came out above the clouds and into the bright sunshine. Our first stop was to walk ‘The Grant Tree Trail’ where the ‘General Grant Tree’, the second largest tree in the world stands 270 ft tall and 170 ft around its base. It was an awesome sight and such a beautiful walk.
Our next stop was to be ‘Tunnel Log’ – a tunnel that had been created after a Sequoia fell across the road in December 1937. The tunnel created is eight feet high and 17 feet wide and was created as a visitors attraction. There is loop to drive around just for the fun of driving through the tunnel.
Because the drive up to the top of the mountain was so slow we decided to head back down so that we were out of the park before dark. We were able, however, to watch as the dipping sun created some beautiful colours in the sky and around the many Cyprus trees that grow in the area.
Arriving home at around 6.30pm we spent the evening talking to our hosts, cooking tea and planning the next few days.
Two Judo Girls One Adventure 
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