Last Friday I spent most of the day trying to get other things I needed since I was still in a decent sized city. Diana took off Friday for a business trip and Michael had class all weekend, so I headed out early Saturday morning. I had planned on going to Zion National Park next, but when I saw the weather was going to be in the mid-90's I decided to skip it for now and go back in the spring. So I drove all the way to Sequoia National Forest in CA instead. I got there at a decent time, but it took me a while to find a campsite that was suitable for the RV. I ended up parking in an open area after trying to squeeze in between some bushes and trees and scraping the side of the RV pretty good. I also had a hard time getting it level, but finally managed to find a decent spot overlooking the river, which was running really high. The campgrounds were all pretty full of people who had come up to run the river. I also managed to tear off one of my mudflaps backing over a big rock, but I somehow managed to not get too frustrated. After dinner and a beer, I fell asleep early after the long day's drive.
This morning I decided to try and bushwack up the hill across from our campsite. It looked like it would have a nice view. Well, that didn't turn out to be such a great idea. We found a road that started us out, but when we started to head uphill, things got much tougher. The scrub and bushes were much bigger than they looked from a distance. And there were a lot more ravines than I noticed initially. After getting only part way up, it was starting to get pretty hot and Abbey was getting pretty wiped out from the heat. So I decided to make my way across to where it looked to be a lot easier and then make our way down. Well, the brush wasn't as high, but the rock underneath the brush and grass was real loose. We finally made it back down after getting full of burrs and scratches. Gotta work on my bushwacking and route-finding skills.
I decided to take a drive back up along the river passed where we camped to the end of the road. It was a pretty windy and steep road but the views were worth it. We stopped to see the President George Bush (the first ' not W) giant sequoia tree near the top of the road. There was a short hike which supposedly went by the tree. Well the path wasn't well-marked and neither was the tree. I passed a pretty large sequoia so I assumed that was it. Meanwhile, Abbey didn't care so much about the tree. She was deeply preoccupied with going in the creeks and chasing lizards. We stopped to check out the views on the way back down and then found a real nice campground in a grove of evergreens pretty high up. It was more like I was hoping for up here, though I did break my string of 7 nights without having to pay for staying the night. Oh well, the site is worth it.
Kern River Campsite
Yucca on the Bushwack
Bushwacked
View Beyond the Canyon