Yosemite, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

19 August


A bit of rain this morning at Lake Tahoe. It did not come to anything. We spent the time cleaning and doing some washing. We eventually got online at the office and published a blog and changed our library books. The E books have been great this trip. After lunch we went back to our beach for a swim and sunbathe. While we were having our evening drinks a couple of ladies, (Valerie and Pamela) from Reno stopped for a chat. They were both originally from England. And were interested in what we were doing and NZ.

20 August

We left the camp and continued down the west side of Lake Tahoe. We had planned to stop at another beach but the parking all became a bit hard and we ended up in the touristy shopping area of South Tahoe where we checked the tyre pressure and got out asap. Back down the road to the cute little town of Markleeville and a short detour to Grover Hot Springs State Park. We are camped in a huge pine forest. We hoped that we could get a California State Park pass which would halve our camp fees in these parks but unlike all the other states we have been thru, they do not have one. Just our luck! After lunch we cycled a great track to a waterfall. The waterfall was not great but the track reminded us of the tracks in Hanmer. We scampered back to “Ernie” as the clouds had built up and there was quite a bit of thunder. You take electrical storms seriously in the USA.

21 August

Back to Markleeville and the road south towards Yosemite National Park. We drove over a couple of passes and joined the main road (395) before turning onto the 120 and climbing the Tiago Pass which is the start of Yosemite. We had decided to stay in a forest camp close to the top of the pass at Ellery Lake. We got the last RV site in the small camp at almost 10,000ft!! We took a short walk to and along the lake. It is very rugged and isolated. It is also COLD. Fortunately we had bought a second “comforter” (duvet NZ or dooner Aussie) at Walmart when we last shopped and we sure needed it.

22 August

Over the Tiago Pass and into the Yosemite National Park where we found a camp site at Tuolumne Meadows. As we have little show of getting a site in the valley, we have decided to stay here 3 nights and explore the high areas of Yosemite. We have been in the valley with Lynne and Paul in 2007. After lunch we caught the free shuttle up the road and set off for a 3 mile climb up to Lembert Dome, with spectular 360 degree views of the area, and then on to the beautiful alpine Dog Lake. Bad name for a great lake!

In the evening we went to the Ranger’s campfire talk. These are very interesting and tonight’s was on owls. Boy its cold though!

23 August

 We packed our lunch and caught the shuttle in the opposite direction for a hike to Cathedral Lake. The first 2 miles was uphill thru the forest before we levelled out above the snow line with the sharp peaks all around. The Cathedral Lake was beautiful with a cold wind blowing across it. There is a huge forest fire outside the park and the sight of the smoke rising 1000’s of feet into the air is a bit chilling. It may disrupt our plans for the next week. Just have to wait and see. Back at the camp and the smoke has reached us so we are inside away from it. The strange thing is that most campers are still lighting camp fires and adding to the smoke. We used the heater for the first time this morning as it was about -2C when we woke.

24 August

We packed our lunch and set off for an easy walk along the banks of the Tuolumne River. The ranger told us we could walk for 8 miles up the river but we lost the track after about 3 miles so retraced our steps, found a nice place to sit and have lunch and enjoy the view of the river and the spectacular peaks. The free shuttle took us to the other end of its run to Olmsted Point where we could look down into

the Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. After dinner we went back to the ranger’s campfire for a talk on Lake Mono which we had passed a couple of days ago. Interesting but not as good as the first campfire chat.





25 August

We left the Tuolumne Meadows camp and headed towards the valley (and the fire). Several roads are closed but the route into the valley was not interrupted at this stage. The last part of the 50 mile trip was a

steep decent from 8600ft to 3600ft. The temperature change was huge, an average of 15C warmer in the valley at all times of the day and night. The decision was made to front up to the camp booking office and see if there were any cancellations. The fire had caused many people from San Francisco to cancel so we got a site for the night. The forest fire is now the 20th largest ever in the USA but still burning miles away from this part of the N.P. We watched them loading helicopters with fire fighters to ferry them into the fire. There are some great cycleways in the valley and we followed one to the

visitors centre for some info. In the afternoon we cycled most of the valley. The valley floor is about 1 mile across and flat but the peaks rise straight up on each side. Quite awesome! We locked the bikes and climbed up to Vernall Falls. It was a bit of a gut buster. The trail was about 2 miles up climbing over 1000ft. It was however, well worth the effort as the falls were the best we have seen in the US.

26 August

It was a long drive thru beautiful forest (and a tunnel) to exit the Park. The road descended and eventually we were at 350ft. This is the lowest we have been since leaving Phoenix 4 ½ months ago. We are now at Fresno (pop 500,000) in an RV park for laundry and internet. On the way in we shopped for supplies to get us thru to Las Vegas. We had a nice meal in an Italian restaurant to celebrate our 42nd Wedding Anniversary in a couple of days. This RV Park has great internet so caught up with all the family at Nicolas 40th birthday celebrations.

27 August

We headed east and into the hills of the Sequoia and Kings National Park. After a climb we went to the visitor’s centre where we discovered that “Ernie” was too long (25ft) to negotiate the road out of Sequoia to the south. We decided to visit Sequoia first and then retrace our route back to Kings. This was all made more complicated as this weekend is Labour Weekend and everyone wishes to camp for the last time in the summer.

We drove the 1 hour down to the camp at Lodgepole where we found a camping site. In the afternoon we walked to the visitors centre at Lodgepole and checked out the walking trails. We had found some firewood so we bought some marshmallows and lit a camp fire and enjoyed so ‘smores’.




28 August

We packed our lunch and caught yet another free shuttle into the park to explore the Giant Forest of the Sequoias. The first trail is very popular and well used. We passed all the biggest Sequoia trees (most of which are named) including the General Sherman Tree which is supposed to be the biggest tree (by volume) in the world. Tane Mahuta in the Waipoua Forest is certainly bigger around the girth but

  not as high as this one. We continued our walk away from the crowded trail and followed a nice loop track passed many spectacular Sequoias. These trees can only release their seeds from the cones during a fire. Most of the big trees have been burnt but they still survive and often there are huge hollows or even tunnels thru them where the fires have burnt. Some of the fallen hollow trees are so large that they have been used as cabins by the settlers. The shuttle dropped us back at the Lodgepole village where we bought an ice cream and walked back to “Ernie”. Another camp fire and smores tonight.




29 August

Back on the shuttle with our lunch to explore another part of the park. After a look in the park museum we headed out on a 5 mile loop track thru the forest again to a look out at Moro Point. The last climb to the lookout was via a series of 300 steps built into the rock. A great view from the top.

We followed a trail back to our starting point around Bear Hill. The lady back at the visitors centre told us that we were certain to see bears in Sequoia but look as we might, we still have not seen one since Grand Teton N.P. Back at camp we cooked our dinner over the camp fire.




30 August.

We set off back out of the Sequoia area and into Kings Canyon. This involved 2 hour trip. The road into Kings Canyon is a long and windy. As this is a “first come first served” camp we were anxious to get a site for 3 nights to cover the holiday weekend. We had no trouble as there are 3 large camps in this area. The road into Kings Canyon is a dead end so we biked the last 6 miles from our camp to the “road end”. Most of it up hill! We returned to our camp via a little used gravel road on the other side of the river that runs down the canyon. There is a total fire ban in this camp, the first we had come across. In the evening the camp slowly filled up, many people coming from as far away as L.A. - a 5 hour trip. We have heard that the road going thru Yosemite is now closed due to the fire.

31 August.

A short ride on our bikes to the start of the trail up the Lewis Creek, to an overlook and down Hotel Creek trail. The first part was a 2 mile up hill slog (1500ft), followed by a pleasant walk thru mountain meadows to the overlook where we had lunch. The views were great both up and down the Kings Canyon. The ranger had advised us to do the round trip in this direction (good advice) as the down hill Hotel

Creek trail was a series of steep zigzags. The walk along the valley floor to our bikes seemed to take forever. The round trip was 8 miles. We were so hot on our return to our bikes we joined the locals for a swim in the river (fully clothed!) A nice lady gave us a slice of watermelon which we enjoyed. In the evening we went to a ranger programme which was a guy telling stories. He was very good.



1 September

Back on the bikes for a ride back up the canyon to Zumwalt Meadows (5 miles) where we walked a nice flat track up the Kings River to the end of the canyon. After eating our sandwiches we climbed up one of the tracks heading into the mountains for a view before following the track down the other side of the river and back to our bikes. (7.5 mile trip). It is a toss up whether our boots will last for this trip.

They are just about bugger!! The camp is really full with many family groups however the sites are huge, all under the shade of cedar trees. A surprising number are either Hispanic or Asian. The temperature is great around 30C during the day and 20C at night. As this is the end of summer the whole area (camps, shop and ranger station) closes in a few days. Seems strange as the weather is beautiful.



2 September

We must be late risers as when we went out for breakfast the camp is now only half full with many groups leaving as we eat. It was a long drive back out of the canyon. The road is amazing considering it is a dead end. Although most of the people had gone, we still had to stop many times to let traffic past. Over here no one gives a friendly honk or a wave of thanks, which is not typical of the friendliness of the Yanks. The last part of our drive was thru citrus fruit and vegetable growing area. We have stopped at a Motorhome Park in a city called Visalia. (pop 125,000) There seems to be good internet, a laundry and a pool. What

more could you ask for! We will publish this blog from here. Tomorrow we head east again towards Death Valley and Las Vegas.