Monday, 14th
July
(San Francisco)
Alamo Car Rental
At about 6 a.m. we're already leaving our hotel. We want to be
at the Alamo location at the opening hour and gain as much time
as we can for the second leg of the trip, the Sequoia NP. We stop
just a minute at a Starbucks Coffee to take away a breakfast.
We get there at 7 a.m. We fill in all the forms and after few
minutes the employee brings us our Hyundai XG350.
Even though it's "just" a medium size by American standards,
it seems like a boat compared to our little Italian Nissan. I
was a bit scared of the car's dimensions and of its automatic
gears. Well, understanding how to make the CD player working was
definitely the most difficult thing. Driving these cars is a piece
of cake. They have so many safety controls to avoid all possible
mistakes made by novice drivers (for example car can't turn on
if your foot is not on the break and the gear is not the parking
one).
So, we get out our Rand McNally Road Atlas and leave San Francisco
with no problems. In few minutes we take the CA-99 outside of
the city. Full of enthusiasm heading to Three Rivers.
Three Rivers
To get to Three Rivers it takes us half an hour less than the
time forecasted on the Rand McNally site. We discover what is
going to be the typical town nearby the natural parks: just one
main street where you all you can find is a gas station, a general
store, a couple of restaurants, motels and not much more. We stop
for the first time to get gas. Despite our fears, the procedure
is very easy and in few minutes we are already at out motel, the
Sequoia Motel.
The kind woman I'd emails contacts with, welcomes us. The room
is small, clean and very nice. But there is no resting now. We
want to move at once to the Sequoia NP. We need just few minutes
to leave our luggage, take our backpacks and hiking shoes and
we head to the park.
Sequoia NP
After a photo at the park entrance, we buy the mythical National
Park Pass. With it we can enter for one year in
all the American National Parks. And it costs just 50$!
For the whole day we have a deja vu feeling, finally living in
person all those little things we've been dreaming about for months...the
newspaper and the map of the park taken at the entrance, the visitor
center, the rangers...are just some of them.
After talking to the rangers, we decide to start our visit from
the Giant Forest. The beautiful Generals
Highway is crooked up and down so we must proceed
slowly. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the Giant Forest.
It's really hard to believe your eyes. The sequoias are really
huge and seeing them directly gives completely different than
the impression you get by photos. We stop at the General
Sherman parking area. We get ready for our first
hike and in few minutes we're on the Congress Trail,
a wonderful path which crosses through the Giant Forest. All the
while we turn our heads to each other astonished. Giant sequoias
are huge and majestic and they are impressive not only for their
size but for their soft bark and beautiful color as well. We often
stop to take some shots but it's almost impossible to take one
of the whole tree.
At the end of our hike we go to see the famous General
Sherman which is near the parking area. Since it's
easily reached by tourists, long queues of people waiting to take
a photos are pretty common. We wait our turn. Then we spend a
few minutes walking around the tree and then get back to our car.
It's almost 6 p.m. and before leaving the park we decide to visit
the Giant Forest Museum. We find some
interesting information about the forest's trees and the rangers
gives us good advice for tomorrow's hikes. We come back to Three
Rivers where we eat at the View in the River Restaurant.
The hamburgers are good and the view from the terrace along the
river is nice.
After eating, we return to the motel. We enjoy the sunset swimming
and relaxing our soar muscles in the pool.
Before going to sleep we call our parents, the first time since
we left Rome. It's curious that in Europe tomorrow has already
begun.
Tuesday, 15th
July
Sequoia NP
At breakfast we eat the muffins we bought yesterday at the Three
Rivers general store. Today we plan a couple of hikes. We arrive
at Giant Forest at about 9 a.m. and we head to Moro
Rock. It's a short but rewarding hike.
From the top we can see all the wonderful valley where Three Rivers
is. We also pass through Tunnel Log
where you can take a picture of your car that passes under a fallen
sequoia.
It's 10.30 a.m. when we start our second hike, the Tokopah
Falls Trail. There are no giant sequoias here but
the rocky area offers anyway interesting views. Unfortunately
the falls are a bit dry. It's a pity, and sincerely rangers didn't
say any word about it. Lesson number two of the trip: rangers
don't always tell ALL the truth. This hike takes about three hours.
Before we go back to our car we relax a bit refreshing our feet
in a little river.
Kings Canyon NP
After about an hour we arrive at Kings Canyon NP.
This park is named differently to the Sequoia NP even though they
are directly adjacent and have a common administration. We stop
at the General Grant Grove to eat. A
huge pizza (10$) is enough to fill both. Here in US, a pizzas'
price depends on its size and number of topping. Usually a medium
size with a couple of toppings is enough for two people.
Our next stop is at the General Grant
sequoia, the most famous tree in the Kings Canyon NP. A short
trail leads to this tree. It's as big and impressive as General
Sherman. The remaining part of the trail is interesting as well.
It's full of giant sequoias which don't look much smaller than
the two generals (before reaching General Grant I thought at least
three times that a "normal" giant sequoia we were looking
at was the famous Grant itself!).
It's about 4.30 p.m. and if we want to reach Mariposa before sunset
we must move. Bit by bit woods disappear while the highway, leaving
the park, goes down and the sun gradually sets.
Mariposa
The journey to Mariposa is pretty quiet. We stop just once in
Oakhurst to do some shopping for the
next days. When we get to what was indicated by our McNally prints
as the final cross, we turn east. Only after 20 miles we realize
it was the wrong direction. We arrive as far as El
Portal where we stop to ask information. One (important)
thing I've forgotten is that when you map a trip on the McNally
site, if you fill in an unknown address the McNally program finds
something know nearby it and gives you the updated driving information.
This time, unfortunately, the nearby location was in the opposite
direction we wanted to go and it costs 50 miles more to our car.
We arrive to Mariposa when it's all
dark outside. We've a reservation at a Super8
motel. Our room is really nice. The quality levels is like a three
stars standard in Italy. After a shower we go out and we eat at
a Burger King. Magda discovers onion
rings which, in USA, can be chosen instead than french-fries.
After a triple (free) refill my stomach hurts a bit because of
too much ice. It's not so late but we decide to go to sleep. Tomorrow
we must wake up not late to be able to be to Yosemite early in
the morning.
)
