Illustrated with great photos, no less! I am really enjoying this.
Cool that you found the obscure 100 Giants trail.
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Illustrated with great photos, no less! I am really enjoying this.
Cool that you found the obscure 100 Giants trail.
Thanks Judy, we loved the solitude of the "100 giants".
Well i finally got some more pics uploaded
Day 17-30th October
Well we got a good nights rest after the storm had cleared, and on stepping outside there was no evidence that it had been. Apart from a little drizzle in San Fran this had been the only time there had been any rain throughout our whole trip, it has been blue skys all the way and we consider how fortunate we had been. I remember a woman in the store back in Utah who, after I had commented on what a lovely morning it was replied "it certainly is, were all a little excited here this morning we don't often get to see cloud here" as she looked up at a couple of small white clouds.
I go down to the office to thank and pay the park owner and jokingly ask if there was any extra charge for the light display he had put on for us last night. Thinking he was probably used to seeing these types of storms and it was us Brits getting a little over excited I was slightly surprised when he replied "Wowee ,that sure was something wasn't it, I've been here x amount of years [he did say and it was quite a few but I can't remember the number]and I've never ever seen anything like it!"
It was amazing and the fact it came during the night after we had settled in made us feel very fortunate, even more so when he commented on how we were lucky we had'nt arrived the day before as the winds had blown the smoke from the large fires down south, which had trapped in the valley and had "turned the air green". Heaven knows what hell it must be for people caught up in it, our thoughts are with them.
Well it's another lovely morning so we have a walk down to the river before driving back into the small town, have a breakfast, fill up with gas and hit the Generals highway.
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Up on the hills the cloud is clinging to the tops. We get to the entrance of Sequoia NP and continue towards the giants forest, as we climb the cloud comes and goes, one minute it's sunshine and next a misty feel.
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The road starts to steepen and narrows as we get further up Generals highway, we are now on the section that has a recommendation of 22ft but has a legal limit of 40ft. It's fairly quiet this time of year but in peak season I can see why this is, although I would say the extra width of a class 'C' RV is more of a problem than the length. One moment you have a bit of clearance at the side and then there's suddenly a great big rock jutting out to the side of the road, you certainly need to take it steady here!
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And trees !
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On the way up there was warnings of roadworks on this twisty section, and on more than one occasion we had been given a strange look by workman on the side of the road, which left me wondering what laid ahead. We then came to a standstill behind a queue of traffic, the occupants of the vehicles having a stretch and enjoying the view so I decided to join them. I asked if they knew how long we would be waiting and I was told that they escort us through on the hour, I asked the time and was pleased when the reply was 5 mins to go. We started to exchange stories on our trip and one couple had been at the Grand canyon the day after us and said the view and air was ruined by a controlled fire on the north rim. I felt sorry for them, but once again was so grateful that our trip had gone so well.
Our escort arrived and we were led through the roadworks, I was thinking this has turned out well, a very twisty section that allowed me to use all the width of the road I needed, without fear of oncoming traffic. We then got to the other end where all the on coming traffic were queuing, some not as far over as they could have been, but now had no way of moving as they were parked bumper to bumper. Boy that looks tight, but with no other choice I inched my way past, literally. With a small wall and a massive drop one side and cars and vans the other [some having to pull there mirrors in to let me passed] all I could think of was after getting this far round I don't want to lose my insurance deposit now! Well we made it and made a couple of stops before arriving at the "Giants forest".
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At the end of this path is our son [well over 6ft tall] which represents the height of the tree if it were laid on it's side
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We have a look around the interesting visitor centre which has visual displays and a wealth of information, including this scaled feature, comparing the size of the General Sherman tree to other well known things such as the Statue of liberty, the Titanic and one of the USA space rockets.
We then head to meet up with the "General". As the cloud thickens and the visibility drops we walk the trial, wondering if the next tree was the one. We see a sign for the General and look through the cloud, Hmm, not as big as we thought, but mighty impressive. Hang on a minute whats that lurking behind, a massive form becoming visible as the cloud shifts again, right behind what we thought was the General, and now looking small in the wake of this towering giant, General Sherman we salute you. He stands tall and proud to greet us, weighing more than 2 jumbo jets and reaching high into the sky, fantastic.
You cannot however fully appreciate how big he is with the surrounding giant trees obscuring the view, but here's a photo we got, if you look closely at the bottom of the picture just to the left of the General, there are 2 small trees, close to them you can see red,white and blue dots, that there is people,folks!
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Here you can see the top of the general that has died,he is in no danger but apparently will not grow any taller.
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Well time to leave and head towards Oakhurst, our last stop in the RV before returning it. This is the only night we hadn't confirmed our stop, we knew it wasn't realistic to visit Kings canyon, but left it an option in case we had made up some time somewhere else along the way. We had also considered getting further north and exploring some of the gold rush town like Jamestown, but with such a fantastic time in the Sequoias we knew it would be a push to make Oakhurst now.
As we left the forest the cloud got really thick, for a good few miles on another twisty section the visibility was awful and slowed us down quite a bit, there was even traces of snow remaining on the side of the road. Then,all of a sudden it cleared and there were blue sky's, we thought it had cleared, but in actual fact we had risen above them.
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We climbed to over 8000ft and then started to come down,another hour or so of twisty,cloudy roads and we get off the mountain and head for Oakhurst on some quicker roads. We arrive in Oakhurst after dark and the site we headed for was quite busy but we manged to park up for the night and headed into town for a meal. We were approx 17 miles from Yosemite, the place this part of our adventure had begun.
A night of mixed feeling as we contemplate taking the RV back tomorrow but look back on this incredible adventure we have shared.
Next up! We return the RV and have a couple of nights to unwind in San Fran before our flight home.
Thanks Gommy,
Just read all your posts and looked through all the pictures. Superb. Am currently trying to plan a smilar trip myself, but from San Fran thinking going down the Pacific Coast a bit then cuttin in and going Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Gran Can etc etc and to be honest enjoying every minute of it but finding it a little overwhelming and wondering if i've bitten off more than I can chew? So to read your post with the detail and seeing the pics is setting my mind a little at ease and just makes me want to get behind the wheel an get crackin. Thanks again. Keep on truckin...
hi matt,glad you enjoyed it. the planning is a very enjoyable part of it but i remember how daunting it was to start with. our original outline plan would have taken us 3 months to visit,not 3 weeks,so we had to make sacrifices,one of those being the coast road which is a very popular choice.i just felt that coast and city we have at home and on this trip we would do mainly desert and canyon.i guess it's all about getting the balance right between seeing as much as poss without rushing so much you don't have any time to enjoy whats around you.
i hope you have as much enjoyment from your trip as we did ours,i really can't wait to return there and get to see those places we missed,including the coast!
don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions,good luck.
Day 18 31st October
The sun is rising on our last day in the RV and we get fed and watered before we start the cleaning and pack up everything back into our cases, not the most enjoyable part of the trip but it has to be done. With that sorted it's time to unhook and go and empty all the water tanks and fill up with propane gas at the office, with this done we head into town [Oakhurst]to give the RV a rub down. Having a jet wash for the RV in town and it's location for getting back to Oakley in time to do the drop off were the 2 main reasons to do an overnight here.
So to the jet wash and hit the road.
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The arrangement with the RV company was to drop the RV of to there home in Oakley at around noon (from where we had collected it) and then they were going to drive us to our hotel in Lombard street, San Francisco where we were to be staying for the next 2 nights. If anything changes or we are delayed we had arranged to call them.
We got to a gas station and before we could do anything me and the lad had to run into the mall to let nature take it's call, if you know what I mean. After a big sigh of relief we commented on how much we had taken the amenities on board for granted, and how we miss them now that everything is shut down, including the tea making!
It's now approaching 11.30am. and we reckoned on being another hour or so, therefor we decided to call to let them know we were going to be a bit behind time, only to discover that our arrangement had been lost/forgotten about and the chap, due to the uncertainty, was standing outside the airport hotel we had arrived at. He couldn't apologise enough for the mishap and quickly remembered as we re-ran our conversation about staying on Lombard street and that he had suggested it would be easier for us to meet at his house and he would take us in by car due to the roads in the city and size of RV. We had passed all the main routes into San Francisco so we had no choice but to continue towards Oakley on Hwy 4 from Stockton, the road I didn't much care for at the beginning of our journey, it didn't seem so bad now, I guess I must have got accustomed to the RV and driving in the USA ! We were totally unprepared for this part of the trip and had no mapping laid out, but we eventually got over Bay bridge and onto Hwy 101 to the Best western Grosvenor where our guy was waiting. We took care of all the necessary paper work and inspection and then it was straight back up the 101 to Lombard street.
With the misunderstanding, it was much later than we had expected to arrive and feeling a little tired and frustrated [although we accept it was an error and was very happy with the service we had] we settled in to our hotel for an afternoon nap before having a nice stroll and a coffee nearby. It's Halloween and there is a real buzz in the air as kids aged from 6 months to 60 years fill the streets in there colourful costumes. It is so well organised, the shops having baskets of sweets for the kids doing trick or treat, yet customers are left in peace to enjoy their coffee and look on. We walk along the waterfront looking in various shops and Ghirardelli square to get some last minute goodies and then onto pier 39 for an evening meal, we enjoy a couple of glasses of wine and reflect back on our journey. We wander around for a while and head back to the hotel.
Day 19- 1st November
I wake this morning feeling a little bit in limbo, as though I'm just waiting to go home which I'm not ready for, but we're determined to make our last day enjoyable. An old school friend of our son, who now lives in Vancouver, had flown down last night for a reunion, so today we leave them alone to catch up and the wife and I head off to explore.
We head towards the Golden gate recreation area and stroll along Marina green and past Fort Mason.
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We then start to walk towards Alamo square through the pacific heights area with traces of Halloween all around.
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And enjoy lots of lovely old buildings like this one.
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We take in a couple of parks along the way which have some nice views of the city, including Lafayette and Alta plaza before arriving at Alamo square, made famous by those photos of the Painted Ladies.
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Again, some lovely views when the mist allows, so we take a breather here while the visibility of the city skyline comes and goes in the background.
There are so many lovely homes in this area that contrast with the city, sometimes an old timber building sitting next door to a skyscraper, by the time we got here the "Ladies" didn't appear to be that special, but glad we made the effort.
After our rest we head towards city hall on Van Ness Ave, we felt a little uneasy between Alamo and here, as in we were in the rough neck of the woods. It seemed a rather run down poor neighbourhood with a few small gangs and a heavy police presence about.
You could occasionally feel the odd look enquiring as to what you were doing here, we certainly felt out of place. As I looked down the street I could see the magnificent dome of city hall and I remember thinking that for these poor people, having to look down their road at that each day isn't going to help relations!!
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We walked around City hall, a magnificent building and stopped at a hot dog stand, sat down on the chairs provided whilst eating our hot dog. We watched businessmen coming and going, Yellow cabs hustling along while mums were playing with the laughing kids on the green in the (now) bright warm sunshine. It was lovely to sit back and people watch for a while. God bless America!
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We continue towards Market street and have a look around a market there and some memorial stones and fountain [I think this was a memorial to do with the giant earth quake years ago]. We are now not far from Union square and all it's glory, but it feels a long way away as you see just how many homeless congregate around this area, some with awful disabilities, not that it's any different to any other city in the world.
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We walk up market street towards Union square, passing a street chess competition on the way back to where our adventure first started.
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We did a bit more shopping and had a coffee in a real 'City slicker' type cafe located opposite the Sir Francis Drake hotel before returning to visit China town once again to take advantage of there cheap travel bags to help cope with all the extra gear we have bought to take home with us.
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We then continue walking north to Russian hill area, we thought maybe we should have got the tram and then saw this and thought maybe not ! lol!
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We then walk up the 'Crooked street' (Lombard) and enjoyed lovely views of the Bay as mist came and went. We finally made our way back to the hotel with aching feet, we had walked miles but we had another great day.
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After a rest and booking a super shuttle to take us to the airport in the morning [it's worth ringing around, prices varied greatly] it was once again off to pier 39 for our last meal in the USA as the sun sets on our great adventure.
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Day 20- 2nd November
We got to the airport this morning and our journey home was as smooth as the one that had brought us here, although exhausting. Seeing the folks back home and sharing our stories kept the blues at bay, I can't wait until we can re-visit. Thanks for looking.
Dave, Lezli, Simon and Louise.
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That was some vacation! Thanks so much for taking the time to update us all and offer a fantastic selection of photos. You did a great job and I'm a little sad the report is finished as I was enjoying reading it!
I, for another, have become a big fan of your journal and photos! I hope you swing by when you have time and share your expertise with other travelers.
Thanks again,
Mark
I agree with Mark (though I've seen you answering other peoples posts already so I have a funny feeling you'll be sticking around!)
The San Francisco shots were very cool - I especially like the staged (?) photo of the people 'pushing' the tram up the hill :D
Hmmmmmm. Actually, it happens often, -- the cable cars sometimes loose traction on the "flat places" and passengers and operators have to jump out and give an assist. I have done it many, many times over the years....Quote:
Originally Posted by UKCraig
Mark
haha that's fantastic! :)