Day 1 - The Beginning

June 6, 2007

After some choked-up goodbyes last night after dinner with Matt, Lauren, Niky, Mariel and Zoe at Real Food Daily, I left Los Angeles at 7:30 this morning. It took me 30 minutes to get out of Beverly Hills; but after that it was smooth sailing for the rest of the day, driving-wise. In fact, as first days go, today couldn't have been much smoother.

I've lived in L.A. for five years and today was the first time I saw Six Flags Magic Mountain. Whatever. The mountains around it are really gorgeous: most of them have no trees. I don't know why this is. My first guess was a recent fire, but now I think that is almost definitely wrong. More likely, it's something to do with the soil. Anyway, passing Six Flags and on the way to Bakersfield is a pretty scenic drive through some valleys. Then, you come out into flat country that reminded me of drives up to The Cabin. Too bad I didn't have anyone with me today to read the latest issue of Cosmo. If only there was a podcast.

I arrived at the entrance to Sequoia National Park around 12:00, which was a little later than I had planned, but not too bad. Immediately, I was treated (by nature, I guess) to a beautiful canyon vista with a river running through it. Just past the visitor center, there was a natural rock tunnel, which would make more sense if I could figure out how to post a picture of it.



Of course, the main attraction here are the big trees. Entering the Giants Grove, it's immediately obvious that the magnitude of these trees is so unlike almost all others that they almost don't seem real. For some reason, I kept thinking of the plastic trees on putt-putt golf courses. When I touched the Sequoias, I almost expected them to be the same hollow plastic and not real wood. They are, however, made of actual living wood and, in fact, the "General Sherman" tree is the biggest living thing in the world. I had to take a minute to let that sink in. The tree is also estimated to be 2,200 years old. Being among these giant trees is an almost surreal experience and one of the most amazing things I've seen.

Also, my Southernness requires me to point out the irony that a giant tree is named for a general known for ruthlessly burning things.

I also managed a quick climb up Moro Rock which is basically a big granite peak with a staircase carved into it. At the top, there were thick clouds all around and warning signs about the danger of lightning strikes. I just looked at the pictures I took today and, frankly, it looks about 1000 times more ominous than I remember. If I had seen those pictures, I might've decided that it was a bad time to go up. Anyway, no one got thunderbolted. The clouds, however, were a warning sign. Not long after, on the trail to the General Sherman, tiny hail drops (are they called drops?) started falling. It was about 55 degrees up there all day, but hail? That was definitely a surprise.

After driving through Kings Canyon, which is kind of Sequoia's less interesting sister park (although it does feature a nice Sequoia grove with a giant named General Grant. What I want to know is where is General Lee? I guess he got the Duke boys' car, but I think maybe we should find the tallest pine tree in the South and name it the General Lee as well.), I headed for Fresno, planning to stop there for the night. Well, Fresno is a dump. It doesn't even feel like California. It kind of reminded me of Texas in the sense that it's a flat city kind of stuck in the middle of nowhere, which is what a lot of Texas is, in my experience (no offense to my Texan friends, who will probably agree). Anyway, I decided to push on to Oakhurst, which is about 15 miles south of Yosemite and that's where I am now. (Also, Oakhurst has the added bonus of being about 2000 feet higher above sea level than Fresno, which might give me some help with the altitude tomorrow. I was really feeling it today in Sequoia/Kings Canyon, much of which is over 6000'. And skipping lunch didn't help.) The plan for tomorrow is to drive into Yosemite, get a feel for it, and pick up the wilderness permits for my backpacking trip, which is scheduled right now for two nights, but might change depending on how much ground I can cover tomorrow. Since I drove into Oakhurst after dark, I haven't had any glimpse of the surroundings, so I'm hoping to wake up to some great American scenery tomorrow morning.