We're now sat in an RV park on the outskirts of San Francisco, on what is going to be our last night in the campervan :o( We've just spent the last four days in Sequoia National Park and Yosemite, braving the weather and the brown bears and getting in a few last hikes before we have to trade in our lovely home for a rental car and motels.
After a fairly lengthy drive (aren't they all, here?) from Death Valley, we spent a night in Sequoia so that we could visit the General Sherman (biggest) and General Grant (widest) trees. They were amazing to stand close to - on a completely different scale to all of the other trees in the park. And so old - they reckon General Sherman is around 2,200 years old.
Because of the rude increase in altitude (from -282ft to 6,000ft) from DV to Sequoia, there was also a corresponding drop in temperature and weather conditions...the snow was five foot in places, so we decided not to hang around, but to press on towards Yosemite. It was a shame about the snow (although expected), because the area is stunning - definitely a future camping holiday. Yosemite also, is incredible. Because of all the snow-melt the waterfalls were in full flow, and we did some great hikes up to them. We knew that the the Half-Dome route would be closed for the winter, but all the same it was so frustrating when we got there not to be able to do it! Again - we'll definitely come back to the area in the future and take care of that unfinished business.
At least the inclement conditions have allowed me to perfect my Ray Mears-style bush-craft; having previously struggled to set fire to dry wood in a desert with the aid of firelighters, I can now make wet logs burst into flame just by staring at them. Well, not quite - but I did manage to get our bonfire to struggle on valiantly against a torrential downpour for several hours.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment