Sequoia National Park

We stayed the night in a very nice RV park in Visalia, CA.  This is a beautiful city of about 125,000.   The entire city is landscaped like a garden.  The roads are lined with oleander of all colors.  We have found the people here to be very friendly and helpful.  They grow all kinds of fruit here.  There are orange trees, lemon trees, olives, cherries, along with strawberries and a bunch more I could not identify.

We made reservations to take the Sequoia Shuttle from Visalia to the park.  This was a very good decision. The fare for the both of us was only $20.  It was a two and a half hour trip each way over roads that had more switchbacks than I could count.  The driver said there were over 400 turns in the 17 mile stretch from the entrance of the park to the visitor's center where we got off.

Once in the park there are shuttles that take you to the various sites.  Each site has hiking trails out in to the forest.  We hiked a trail along the "Meadows".  The sequoia trees were enormous.

Darlie became a tree hugger so we could give you a perspective just how huge these things really are.
This tree was a baby compared to the General Sherman tree which is the largest tree on earth.

They have this tree fenced off to protect it from idiots who feel compelled to carve their initials in everything.  I noticed on one side years ago some people left there names in the bark.  The bark on this tree is over 31 inches thick.  The circumference four feet above the base measures 103 feet.  The tree is estimated to be over 2200 years old.

Darlie took my picture sitting on a huge tree along the trail we were hiking.  I felt like a little kid sitting on grandpa's lap.

Many of the trees show signs of being burned many times over their life spans.  It doesn't seem to do long term damage to them.  They have controlled burns in the park to prevent major forest fires.  It is beneficial to the trees by restoring nutrients to the soil.

We also hiked up Moro Rock.  It is a huge rock outcropping that you can see miles away in the valley.  They have carved a path in the rock with over 400 steps.  There are pipe hand rails for you to hold on to as you climb.  It is really really high and I don't like high.  The view from the top was amazing.

This photo was not taken at the top.  The snow covered mountains in the background were begging to have me take their picture so I obliged.  There is snow on the ground everywhere up here even this late in the year.  It is strange to see with the temperature being so comfortable.

At the meadow we saw a large black bear eating something in the grass.  It was one of three we saw while in the park.

The trip back down the mountain went by quickly even though it was two and a half hours.  We met some very nice folks on the ride and visited the whole time.   A couple ahead of us were from Arkansas and had been full time RVers for two years.  We had lots of laughs sharing some of the things that happen along the way.  We made quite a few references to the movie RV.  It was quite accurate in depicting many aspects of RV life.

Also another passenger, Connie, sat behind us.  She is a local from the Visalia area.  She had gone up to the park with her granddaughter for the day.  She said she would like to go RVing in a couple of years also.  Darlie and she shared stories about grandkids, her work, and the area in general.  Having such nice people to spend the time with was so much fun, we were back to our MH in no time.

Once back at the RV park Shirley came out and checked us in.  She has been a wonderful hostess and we have enjoyed our stay here.  It is a very nice park for seniors.  We have a very good internet connection also.

We heard that there is a shuttle service up in Merced that takes you up to Yosemite.  I am going to see if I can find out anything about it.  If I can, we will make arrangements to go there next.  They say Yosemite is more beautiful this year than in years.  There is so much snow runoff so the falls are really spectacular.