We set off last Thursday night for our summer vacation. The plan was to not really have a plan, we thought we'd just head to Big Sur then Sequoia National Park and try to camp in non-reservation sites as we came across them. We'd be gone through the next week and get back into work the next Tuesday, so our trip spanned 2 weekends. Well, Big Sur was totally full, no campsites to be had in the whole place, plus David was getting itchy, it looked like it was chock-full of rich hippies and their rich-hippie offspring, so we just enjoyed the scenic drive, and pulled out our trusty California Atlas (from Benchmark Press) and searched for a new destination. We drove on a few more hours and discovered Pinnacles National Monument.
Pinnacles is amazing, it feels remote and has beautiful scenery with the CLEANEST most fresh & lovely bathroom facilities I've ever experienced at a campsite. Pinnacles is also an ancient volcano which is located on the San Andreas Fault, and has split in half and traveled some 200 miles apart. "Rising out of the chaparral-covered Gabilan Mountains, east of central California's Salinas Valley, are the spectacular remains of an ancient volcano. Massive monoliths, spires, sheer-walled canyons and talus passages define millions of years of erosion, faulting and tectonic plate movement."
We hiked Moses Spring Trail up to a beautiful resovoir, and down through some Talus caves, which I'd never been in before. There are huge suspended boulders balancing over delicate streams, and you feel such awe down under them.We left Pinnacles after a few days and took some crazy country backroads and saw lots of farms & abandoned churches & lots of golden California hillsides. David tricked out the little Bee and made her drive crazy over those windy roads, and I decided to turn it into a wine tour.
On our way to Fresno to pick up supplies before we headed into the Sequoias, we got a text from Justin, Maddy & Ari, who were also on their way to a campsite called Dorst Creek in the Sequoias for a 3 day vacay, so we changed course and camped in their site. We had so much fun with our family, we hiked Tokopa Falls, saw the Sherman Tree, and played in Dorst Creek all day. We had several black bear encounters, including the first night there, when they raided our food locker while we were still cooking & eating dinner, then raided our picnic table while were were securing the raided locker.
After we left them, we headed North to the very bottom of Kings Canyon, and found a place a quite, serene Moraine campground. No reservations here allowed, and not that many other people. We spend our last few days enjoying the Kings river, just a hop over s small hill behind our tent, and hiking that area. We did a 9 mile round trip trek to Mist Falls one day, and followed it up with a 7 mile round trip to Weaver Lake in the Jennie Lakes Wilderness. These were the most beautiful hikes we have ever done, there are so few people out there, it so quiet and wild. Nature has just flourished in all the peace out there, and I've never seen such views of giant trees protecting little sun dappled meadows of wildflowers. Mountain views down into expansive canyon rock and river. I felt like I was in my very own church for 4 days, endlessly worshiping life & creation.
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