Week ending Jan 1, 2015 Auburn to Sequoia National Park

Friday morning was cold, a bit of frost on the windshield of the truck. By 8:00 A.M, it was above freezing, sunny and cloudless. We drove into Lincoln to Camping World. They did not carry the part we are looking for, and we aren't here long enough to order one.  We then went to REI for John to replace his sunglasses.  We wandered through a few other shops to see if there was anything we wanted or needed. We stopped for lunch at Red Robin, for John to have his favorite bonzai burger. We then stopped to pick up some wine and few other supplies before heading back to the trailer. We chose a back road and discovered some very interesting countryside, mostly orchards, mandarin fields and ranching.  In the distance we could see the snow covered hills close to Lake Tahoe, where the ski hills are now open.

Saturday, after a quick stop at the farmers market to get fruit, veggies and some great bread,  we headed out to Hidden Falls Regional Park.  The parking lot was extremely full, mainly due to the Woodcreek High School Cycling Team having an event.  We had a lucky moment when driving around the parking lot looking for a parking spot someone backed out in front of us. If we had been 2 minutes earlier or later someone else would have got that spot.  Our chosen hike was about a round trip 3.5 miles to Hidden Falls at the confluence of Deadmans Creek and Coon Creek. We enjoyed the sunny day and had lunch sitting on a rock enjoying the rapids just below the falls.

Sunday was cool and sunny. A perfect day for a scenic drive.  We headed south on 49 to Coloma to visit the Marshall Gold Discovery Center.  This the location of Sutter's Mill where the gold that was  discovered started the California Gold Rush in 1849.  We went on an interesting guided tour, learning many facts about the original gold discovery here, as well as about the indigenous people who have lived in this area for hundreds of years.

We then decided to continue south to Placerville.  After discovering that John had left our lunch at the trailer, we stopped at Brick's, the busiest restaurant on main street, for a great lunch.  We then headed west to loop around via Folsom, home of the prison in one of  Johnny Cash's songs.    After we got back to the trailer, a red-headed woodpecker knocked on the window, and then landed on the tree next to the trailer. 

Monday morning was the day to prepare for moving.  We get lazy when we are parked for 2 weeks, like we were in Auburn, so preparing to move takes longer than usual. John took the recycling to the recycling center, filled up with diesel and washed the truck, while Joan went shopping for clothing essentials. The shopping center was only a couple of blocks away so very handy. We then cleaned, packed some things away, drained the water system, added some fresh water to the tank. The weatherman was predicting temperatures below freezing, so we put away our hoses because they are hard to put away when they are stiff.

Tuesday morning we woke up early and hooked up. Our truck warning system alerted us to a low tire. Great! We had a fairly long trip (for us) and wanted to get an early start. We stopped at America's Tire and spoke to Jim, the manager. He looked at the tires, and agreed with us that the problem was likely the cold temperature. He filled all the tires, checked and filled the tires on the trailer and even crawled under both the truck and trailer and topped up the spares. What service!  We have never had anyone check our spares. The cost of this fast excellent service was a "have a safe trip". We told him where we were headed so he said if there was still a problem check in at the America's Tire in Visalia. Since we have been traveling through California we have not seen any evidence of the drought they have been suffering until we got south of Sacramento.  The rivers are dry and the fields look quite brown. I guess the rain that has fallen further north did not reach this part of California.  We arrived at Country Manor Mobile Home and RV Park in Visalia shortly before 2:00 P.M., so in plenty of time to set up. The manager greeted us, took our money, gave us the usual info and told us to help ourselves to some of the oranges in a bucket on the table outside the office door. There are orange trees loaded with fruit all over the park, but they do not want people to pick them, because often the trees get damaged if people are not careful. The owners/managers pick the oranges and leave them outside the office for the park residents to consume. The park has good facilities and the long term residents are very friendly.

Wednesday morning we had our fresh oranges for breakfast. We will insure we have one each morning we are here. After breakfast we headed out to Sequoia National Parks. It was foggy in Visalia, but the weather channel said it was clear out in the park. We spoke to some of the people in the RV park and they said we needed to carry chains if we were going to the park. so we tossed our chains in the truck.  We enjoyed the drive out to the park, we could see glimpses of mountains through the clouds and the foothills we drove through were picturesque. When we got to the park entrance, there was line-up of cars and the park rangers were turning back anyone who was not carrying chains.  We stopped at the visitor center, and decided to go to the Giant Forest Museum, at which point we could take a shuttle to the General Sherman Tree.   The road is narrow and switches back and forth up the side of the hills, with a speed limit of 25 mph, climbing from below 1000 feet.  Once we got up to over 5000 feet, we found ourselves in the clouds and finally got to a point where the road was snow covered, although well sanded.  We figured any hope of seeing anything further up wasn't worth the stress of driving on this road with minimal visibility.  The fact that this violated our main rule, being able to see snow, but not touch it, did not escape us. We also compared this trip to hiking up to a viewpoint to look at the inside of a cloud. After stopping at a waterfall in the process of freezing and chatting with two couples from Montreal, we decided to turn back, hoping for better weather the next day.  On our way back we stopped at some viewpoints along the way Tunnel Rock, Big Fern Springs, Hospital Rock , the Kitchen Rock. At Hospital rock we stopped for lunch where we saw a couple of red headed woodpeckers.  We walked down to the river to see some of the magnificent rock formations along the Kaweah River. 

Once we were back down out of the park, we returned to Visalia on side roads which took us through some of the many acres of orange orchards in the area, most of them with oranges still on the trees.

Thursday, the first day of 2015 dawned clear and sunny so we headed back to Sequoia National Park. What a difference 24 hours makes. Not a cloud to be seen over the mountains.

When we got to the park gate, we discovered that today chains were not required for the first 24 miles into the park, instead of the 11 miles yesterday.  We were really happy that we had turned back yesterday, because we saw the fantastic scenery which was hidden in the clouds yesterday.  We got to the Giant Forest Museum, where we took the shuttle to the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree, by volume, on earth, 36.5 feet in diameter, and still 13.7 feet at 180 feet up the tree.   The giant sequoia trees are interesting, perfectly straight, and the tallest, largest trees in the world.  They only grow on the western slopes of the Sierras in this area of California.   Although the road was steep, narrow and winding it was well worth the trip in to see these spectacular trees.