Sorry about posting this one out of sequence and without
pictures, but it was such a great
day, I wanted to get it out there to let
you know I am still traveling and there will be new posts, I will catch up on the other posts and the
pictures as time (and internet
connections allow….)
Today was the near perfect day. I woke up in the Costco parking lot (undisturbed)
not too far from the Sequoia / Kings Canyon National Park. I got onto the National Park Website, and
found out they had Halloween tours of Crystal Cave starting at 11:00, so that was my destination for this morning. I filled up with gas at Costco (at only 3.84 per gallon). Nice it was finally back below $4, and headed
towards the park. About 9:00 am I got to
the southern Foothills visitor center just in time to get tickets for the 11:00
cave tour. With the a black bear (#9 was
just in the road for a while), windy
roads and the construction delays, I made it there about 10:20.
Just enough time to get all the
food out of the cab of the truck (bear
region again) and get ready for the
tour.
It was a great tour
with “Ghosts” telling the stories of the cave (with a little, but not too much embellishment). It was really a lot of fun, especially since
there were some kids on the tour that asked questions, got scared at the booms, and just had a great
time. Good thing I checked the website
this morning, and did the long drive
last night, because there were not any cave tours again till November. I would have completely missed the cave. I talked with the cave tour ranger and
asked where else I should go for the day.
She mentioned that this was the last night that Kings Canyon was open
and that I should head that way if I wanted to see and photograph it (I would
have missed Kings Canyon too), so that
was the direction for the day.
Along the way, I
passed many sights and a bunch of giant trees in order to make it to Kings
canyon for the last night of the season
(I will take more time to see all that I drove through on the way back
though over the next few days). It was a
couple of hour, very nice drive from the
south end of Sequoia and all the way to the end of Kings Canyon. Along the way there was an old lodge that had
working gas pumps from 1928. This was
the highest price I had seen yet. $1.60
per liter or about $6.40 per gallon.
Luckily I didn’t need gas, but I
got an ice cream cone from the lodge.
I made it to the canyon and drove all the way to the end,
stopping at some waterfalls and photographing as I went. At the end there is just a turnaround road,
and I headed back to the Sheep Creek campground for the night. It was really a nice campground and I found a
site next to the roaring river. There
was plenty of wood and I chopped one log into a number of sections to build a
large fire. I even started the fire
without matches (or a lighter) by using the coals that were still hot that
someone left burning the night before.
I enjoyed a nice Merlot wine from Chateau St Michelle (WA) and waited
for the coals. I had some corn on the
cob and a prime ribeye steak that I cooked over the fire as the stars started
to appear, and as the full moon slowly rose over the valley. I think this is turning into one of my new
favorite park/parks! A near perfect
day…
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