Kathy got the laundry done, I did some maintenance chores and we relaxed for a change most of the day. Then near catastrophe struck. We both went out to the bath house in the late evening. When we returned, there we were in the dark staring at a locked door! No idea how it got locked but we didn't have a key on our side of the locked door. Oh-oh. After sizing up the situation for a while, I finally came to the realization that the outside storage door was unlocked. The top of that compartment is the base of the bed. So my route into the locked house was through the storage compartment and to push up the plywood bed base and mattress. That worked and we were good again. We now have a hidden key outside of the interior.
Issue number 2 was that I discovered a missing credit card today. I called the company and cancelled that card number and will get a new one when we get home so no big deal. It's the card we use for gas and I'll use Kathy's card for the rest of the trip. She needs to pony up for the rest of the fuel anyway. I paid to get to the west coast, she can pay the return trip.
So it wasn't totally an uneventful "off" day. We managed to make it memorable.
Today, we moved to the Sequoia area. It wasn't a lot of miles (maybe 170) but these roads are a challenge and take up plenty of time to get a few miles.
The route varied from the mentioned mountain driving to some pleasant highway miles.
You can see it's a bit hazy in this area. Not sure if that's from fires or LA smog or both.
The straight road turned into the twisty stuff soon enough.
30 miles of that is like a couple hundred worth on the freeway.
We arrived at the Sequoia Resort and set up the RV.
It's a real nice spot in the wooded hills.
After a lunch, we drove into Sequoia National Park in the area of the General Grant tree and visitor center.
Arriving at the parking area, we immediately encounter some of the sequoia trees.
They're big and they're tall...and these are some of the little ones.
We took a path around the General Grant tree area and the following photos are various scenes on that half mile trail.
What you need to remember is that the non-sequoia trees in the pictures are all mature trees as well with 3' to 4' diameter trunks as a comparison.
With every step, you're saying "holy shit, look at that one!"
And this is what we came to see.
The "General Grant".
This thing is massive. You have to be there in person to get the size perspective. A camera doesn't capture it very well.
This is the other side of the trunk that fire has damaged which again, is common with these trees.
We continued our walk around this path and did another loop trail of a couple miles through the grove.
You can read the plaque, but this is a stump where a 24 foot diameter tree was cut down and part of the trunk was sent to the east coast as a display for America's centennial. Apparently the folks out east thought it was fake.
Our stroll continued.
Unlike the grove at Yosemite, there are dozens of these giant sequoias here. They are much larger than the trees at Yosemite. Maybe some of the smaller trees here rival the larger up north.
Here's a few specs on the largest sequoia trees.
Age: 3200 years
Height: 311 feet
Weight: 2.7 million lbs.
Bark: 31 inches thick
Branches: 8 feet in diameter
Base: 40 feet diameter
Here's a picture with Kathy next to one of the many typical trees here to get a perspective on the size of the trunk.
And a final look up before my neck got stiff and I decided enough tree pictures.
So it's 7:30 pm and dark now while I unwind from a day of travel and trekking. That's 10:30 pm Eastern time that I'm used to living on.
Tomorrow we're going to drive the General's Highway through the heart of Sequoia National Park to the General Sherman tree. My understanding is that one is even larger than what we looked at today. Get ready for some more stunning photos of trees! I guess I shouldn't complain...it beats the socks off waterless waterfalls.
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