We headed out this morning for the Sequoia National Forest. I learned the difference between sequoias and redwoods; redwoods grow to over 300 feet tall and up to 22 feet in diameter, sequoias grow to 280 feet tall and 40 feet in diameter. The redwoods grow near the seashore in northern California while sequoias grow at an elevation of about 6000 feet or greater in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in southeastern California.
Because the sequoias were up on the mountain, it took a long time to drive up there. In addition to that, they were doing road construction and only let cars pass "on-the-hour" so when we got to there, we had about a 35 minute wait.
Near the top is the General Sherman Tree; the largest tree in the world. It is 103 feet in circumference and 275 feet tall. To see it you must hike about .4 miles from the parking lot. The catch is that you descend 212 feet as you go down the trail to the tree. Even that’s not too bad until you start back up the hill. There are 6 groups of benches on which to rest and I tried all but one.
Since no roads go over the Sierra Nevada mountains, we had to backtrack and go around. We stopped at The Hummingbird Restaurant at Dunlap, Ca. A bite to eat then on to Death Valley. A lady at the restaurant offered to give us driving directions around the mountains which saved about an hour of driving time. After we left Bakersfield and headed east it wasn’t long until we were in the mountains again. As we neared the top we encountered a fire crew who had just extinguished a fire along the roadway. The for the last couple of days, we have noticed the grass is almost nonexistent. What little there is, is brown and very dry. In the mountains again, the views were very spectacular.
Didn’t find anyplace to stop that we liked so we drove all the way to Ridgecrest, CA, just south of the China Lake Naval installation and are staying at the Best Western. Sydney, while I blog, Floyce is watching "Pickers' the show that you and her like.
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