A HECK OF A LONG DAY RIDING

When we first made our plans for our California trip, we wanted to make sure that we got in as much of the National Parks that we could.

Upon researching and thinking that we were in the “heart” of the Sequoia National Park and the Monument, we made our reservations here at Wishon Campground-thinking that would put us in the middle of all to see and do.

I had made a list of sites that I would have liked to seen in the area, some of it in the Northern sector and some in the Southern Sector of where we were located.

Getting up bright and early and packing a lunch and plenty of coffee we started our on our one day adventure.  After talking to some local and the deputy that patrols the area, we took what they called was the scenic route towards Sequoia National Park. 

The “scenic” route we didn’t think was that “scenic”.  With the many twist, turns up and down and all we saw was how much CA is in dyer need of moisture.  The rolling hills that should have been green was all dead due to lack of snow and rain.  And they say happy cows live in CA-the cows we seen didn’t look  so happy.

Anyways what seem like took hours (wait-it was hours later!), we finally arrived at the entrance to the Sequoia NP, just to start the twist and turns and the ups and downs once again.  But the scenery was well worth it and spectacular!  First stop was to tunnel rock.

As we kept driving, we wonder though if we would ever come to the big giant trees, for we mostly saw the common forest trees.  Little by little we did start seeing small “giant” Sequoias.

   

We came across where we had to drive between two large Sequoias, and that was really neat!

On our way to Moro Rock, we came across what was once a log road made from the Sequoia itself.  It’s no longer drivable but you still could see evidence of them driving on it at one time in life.

Once we got to Moro Rock, it was time for a small hike for a fantastic view of the whole area.  We even could hear an Eagle’s cry from far below, but could never actually spot it. 

 

We didn’t dally too long here, for we still had lots to do and see and time seem to be running fast on us.  So we moved on to the next thing.  We have yet to see the bigger Sequoias.

We came across a down Sequoia that you can actually drive through!  Brian jumped out to get a picture of me driving the truck through.  I was nervous-not knowing if I would fit-plenty of room!  But if you fear you won’t make it-there is a by pass road to get around it.

Then we came to what was called the Parker Group.  Now here was some huge trees!

    

Next on the list was the Sherman Tree.  The history behind it is interesting.  The US Calvary guarded the Giant Sequoias back in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.  A former soldier named the Giant tree after General Sherman, his leader during the Civil War. 

Moving on at a quick pace, we needed to keep moving and also find a spot to grab some lunch.  Now we enter into Kings Canyon National Park.  We find a pull-out that seemed nice to eat our lunch.  We had to eat it quickly, or the bees might have carried off with our sandwiches.  We learned later that the bees and wasp thrive on these giant trees.

We came to what is called the Giant Grove Village, second world largest set of trees.

  

As we continue on, the road did many switchbacks and we soon was ascending higher and higher.  Every now and then there would be pull-offs to get some spectacular view of Kings Canyon!

  

Next thing we knew, we had a roaring river running next to us along the roadway.  My guess is if there were any rafters on this river it would have been a class IV.  We came to a picnic area and found a waterfall.

The day was getting away from us very quickly and we knew we had to finish the last leg of this ride and head  back towards home.  There was to be another huge waterfall down the road.  We got nearly  to the end of the roadway where it ends, and decided that we needed to head back towards home.  So we never did find the water fall.

I wanted to climb a fire tower or two, but learned they do not open those up to the public until later in May, when fire danger starts to become a concern.  There are also two cave tours that you can do while visiting the Sequoia NP and Kings Canyon NP.  One was open for tours while the other don’t open up until later in May. 

Many of the campgrounds were closed as well, although a few were open, and only one to accommodate larger rigs. At the other end, in Kings Canyon, we didn’t seen any campgrounds open, however they were many doing dispersed camping in the pull-outs along the river side.

We also crossed some pretty serious road work being done on section of the General’s Trail in the Sequoia NP, but we were fortunate that they were not working this day.  Even though the sign said they work Sun-Thur.  There are signs stating rigs over 22 feet not recommend-I would head that warning to the fullest!

I didn’t get to everything on my list. However, we did get to see a lot of Giant Trees and many great views, memories that we will carry with us.  Someday  we will return again, and stay inside the Sequoias NP instead of the Sequoias National Monument; where we will be able to do more…..

HOLY BUCKETS!!!

Getting up bright and early and excited about heading into Sequoia National Monument where we have two weeks reservation at Wishon Campground, not realizing what we were getting into.

It was decided that we would take our chance that our site would be open, we headed out of  Porterville CA at 8am, heading to our new destination.

We jumped onto Hwy 65 South for only a few miles, and then jumped onto Hwy 190 East-towards our campground. The four lane road soon became a two lane highway.  Narrowing the farther we went. 

First thing that happened is that we ran into road construction on the road, before we got into the small town of Springville.  Got past all that and through the small (but thriving) town, and once again, the road gets narrow some more-yet it’s still two lanes.

Then the ascend began, with many twist and turns to the roadway, yet plenty of room for two vehicles to pass on.  We needed to stay on this road until we came across CR208 to our campground. 

When I finally seen the cut-off to our road-my first words were “no fricking way!!!!!”  It became a very narrow road with an abrupt upwards and a quick turn!  I sat there for a moment contemplating with Brian whether we should continue onwards or back up and continue farther down on Hwy 190.  He convince me that it wouldn’t be too bad and that we could do it.  He said our reservation stated we would fit and therefore should make it.

Holy Buckets!  I still can’t believe that I brought our 26 foot travel trailer up that road!!!  It was barely enough room for us to make those twist and turns, and prayed we never met another vehicle coming around the corner, let alone another RV coming down! 

After 4 LONG stressful miles, we were fortunate not to meet another soul on that roadway.  It opened up enough for us to pull over and park the RV and to investigate the campground.

First thing we saw, was the campground was very narrow with trees closing in all around.  Second, there was no camp host on site to assist us.  So we left Leah, and our rig behind and walked to see what our reserved campsite was like and how to approach in getting into it.

Whew, it’s a very good thing that we just didn’t decide to drive through the campground.  We literally wouldn’t fit around the bends of the roadway without hitting overgrown trees or boulders, possibly doing some serious damage to the roof!  Once we found our site, it was awful!!  Very, very narrow, blacktop broken and no fire ring and again brush overgrown on the site!  That wasn’t the worst of it-there was a very dead leaning tree right over where our camper would have been parked!

Not sure what we should do, we finally said the heck with it, we are here, and are going to stay!  So we parked in the only possible site  that would fit us-the host site!  Now how ironic is that-given our past lifestyle???

After parking we hightail it back down the mountain with just the truck to head to the forest headquarters outside of Springville.  Low and behold, we ran into a couple of vehicles coming up!  Glad we didn’t meet with the travel trailer behind us!

Once at the park headquarter, we learned that the forest service has turned the park over the CLM (California Land Management) and their office was back in the center of town.  So we head to the CLM office (which is also the visitor center), to learn they are only open on the weekends (and this was Tuesday).  After fueling up with gas, we headed back and just decided to stay where we are at, and let them come to us. 

Did I mention that we are literally the only ones in the campground?  Only one other vehicle has drove through that day and it was the county Sheriff.  We met with him and visited for a spell.  He told us that many other campers will sit on that spot and that the host generally don’t come in until mid to late May-just before Memorial Day weekend. 

On our second day here we finally came across a CLM worker, emptying trash.  He finally checked us in and said that we were good to stay on this spot.  We also learned that there was a size limit of 22 feet long!  When I made our reservation-nowhere did it state that!!!!

The weekends do get a few campers and the gentleman had to put up a few reservations.  So it appears that all will be nice and quiet during the week and we will have folks in the park on the weekend.

So was this worth it??  oh yeah!!  it’s so beautiful and peaceful with birds chirping and squirrels running around, oh and a mountain lion lurking by-saw him crossing the road once already.  We are tucked in with various types of Pine, including a few redwood and other trees. 

Solar only works for two hours a day, so generator will have to be run occasionally to keep our batteries up to speed.  There is no cell phone or internet or TV.  Even in Springville, our phone doesn’t work.

So when it comes to time to get out of here-it will be done BRIGHT and EARLY on our departure day!

EXPLORING JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

Coming to Joshua Tree National Park was going to be a nice area for me to finish my recuperation for foot surgery and help me to rebuild the strength back into that foot.  With the park being paved and mostly level, I am able to get back into walking.  

Then I wanted to try a short hike and was told it was a fairly easy hike to do.  So we took the half mile (one way) hike to check out Skull Rock.

    
The foot felt good and had no trouble, so I think that I’m ready to adventure further now.

The winds die down, the temps warm up and it’s time to do a little exploring around Joshua Tree National Park.  We start our drive leaving the campground and heading west.

First stop is to naturally get some spectacular pictures of the Joshua Trees themselves.

                         

Next stop was at Sheep’s pass, in hopes to maybe spot a sheep or two.  The rock formation at this point is much different than what we have seen in the campground and throughout the park.

Just up the road a ways was also Ryan’s Mountain that we stopped for a couple of pictures.  Here there was a strenuous hike, that we didn’t do, since my foot is still on the mending and didn’t think that I should attempt that kind of hike just yet.

As we travel down the road we made a turn towards Keys View.  It was a very narrow blacktop roadway, that strongly suggest no rv’s to travel on and if they do-it’s at their own risk.  As we near the top curiosity won out.  Here is what we came upon:

Sun was bright and couldn’t get a could pic without a glare.

Yikes!  We are overlooking part of the San Andreas Fault Zone!  sure hope we don’t have any earthquakes while we are visiting here!  The fault line travels all the way up the CA coastal area and into other areas that we will be visiting this summer yet.

   

It was a very windy day and a bit chilly, so we didn’t stick around too long and wanted to keep going on our tour of Joshua Tree.  After a quick bite to eat it was time to keep moving.  Next stop would be to Barker Dam-where maybe we will see a little water.  Also this will be my second hike since foot surgery and felt up to the challenge.

  

Needless to say, to our disappointment, we came across no water what-so-ever!  there was even a plag talking about water fowls migrating, but due to two years of severe drought-everything dried up.

After hiking back, and the foot doing just fine, I still want to adventure yet a little farther.  There is a hike to the Wall Street Mill that was over 2.5 miles of a hike.    Way back when, when Keys had a portion of the Joshua tree and a mining claim, he fought another gentleman over land rights-and won.  Here lies the poor guy that lost, I believe his name was Bagley:

Once back into the Wall Street mine, we found it interesting and even some old vehicles as well.  There is a guided paid tour of Keys Ranch, but we have seen enough other ranches and this one just didn’t peg our interest.

     

Whew, now that we did all that, I’m done wore out and the foot started to slightly swell, so it was time to call it a day.  We had fun.  There is still lots to see of Joshua Tree National Park, but they are all towards the other end.  Not sure if we will get a chance to hit anymore sights or trails.  But know for sure what we did do, we enjoyed greatly.

ARRIVING AT JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

Spending the night before in the town of Yucca Valley, just outside of Joshua Tree NP gave us a good start to finding the right campsite in the National Park for our two weeks stay.

 View of the mountains near Yucca Valley, CA

We got up bright and early, had our coffee and breakfast, hitched back up and headed for our destination.  We knew that if we got in early enough, we would be able to find a good campsite.  If we prolonged, than our chances would get slimmer as the day went on.  As the saying goes: “The early bird gets the worm”.

Arriving at the West Entrance gate around 8:30am, the ranger informs us that campsite are probably still full, but many should be leaving and we should be able to find a site.   What we didn’t realize is that the campgrounds are in the center of the interior of the park. 

First campground we came to, there was no way we would get our travel trailer around the loop.  It’s a good thing that I parked outside of the gate and let Brian go take a look, or we might have been in a pickle! 

Next campground we were informed that we would fit in was Jumbo Rock.  At first we planned on going into Belle Campground, but feared we might get in a tight situation, since it was a much smaller campground.

So at the first chance of pulling the rig over and parking inside Jumbo Rock Campground,  Brian starts to scout out us a spot.  With my foot still healing and not able to go far, I stayed back.  We soon learn that the campsites are more designated for tent campers and small, small RV’s.  Only a few sites that would accommodate even our size of a unit-which we consider to be small.  As one was packing, Brian approached the family and they were leaving soon.  They were very nice and told Brian if we wanted this site, to go ahead and fill out the slip and put it on the post, so that no one else could claim it.

Once they were gone, it was now time to get parked and set up in our new site.  Only one downfall-I had to go in the wrong way-due to the fact that I couldn’t get around a huge rock and it also stated no travel trailers.  But this site was an end site and would fit us just nicely.

Our campsite-notice the wrong way sign?  Only way we could get in.

When it comes time for our departure, I will have to back it up onto the main roadway, with Brian’s help of course.  Sure enough as soon as a campsite emptied out, was once again occupied by new campers.

I think Leah is already loving this spot.  So far she has been able to “stalk” lizards”, get all fired up that chipmunks and squirrels are in her so-call area!  She didn’t sleep a wink all day, too busy going from window to window just watching and waiting for something to move.

Later in the evening feeling energetic and the foot feeling pretty good, we decided to take a walk around the campground.  Jumbo Rock has over 100 sites.  But only a few will fit larger rigs.  Majority of the sites are along the roadway.

Sites are very tight and close to the roadway

We are situated amongst Jumbo Rocks and very large boulders with very unique formations.  Many enjoy climbing onto the rocks and we even found a few that had planned on sleeping on top of one of the boulders.

See the people on top of the boulders?

Hope they don’t get blown away!

The next morning we awoke to very strong winds and temps plummeted into the upper 40’s.  As we peak out our window to see if the ones sleeping on top of the boulder, sure enough were gone.  As we walk around just a short distant, we notice that most in tents have packed it up and headed out-leaving behind lots of firewood for us to gather!

We get no TV reception, no cell phone and no internet.  So our nights will be occupied by sitting around a nice warm campfire-once the winds subside……

Our campsite

 

 

TRUTH ABOUT SLAB CITY, CA

As we begin our Adventure through California, leaving from Yuma AZ; we couldn’t help but make a few day stop at the famous Slab City.  We have heard so much about this place-mostly negative, and yet it still kept our interest.

So we parked in what we would say was the Middle of Slab City!  Just about every thing that you have heard about this unique place be it Internet or word or mouth is probably true.

As you come into the town of Niland (a very run down and poor community) you turn East onto Main Street, go over two sets of train tracks, past an electrical power center and then you begin to see RV roofs. 

Your first sign that you are getting close is this:

go a little farther and then on your right you can’t help but notice Salvation Mountain:

  

Then what we would call the “community” of Slab City:

 

Some folks call the entrance to Slab City,  Poverty area, in our opinion-majority of Slab City is Poverty area, with the exception of a few.

 

Questions are: Were we afraid to be here?  Have we been intimidated by those that live here?

To answer both of those questions.  Once we picked a spot that wasn’t either trashed or occupied by someone else,  we noticed that two deputy cars were driving around.  Not sure at first if this was routine or if they were looking for someone or something.  We later learned that there is suspected drug activity going on and they are trying to locate the drug trafficking.  On our second day a deputy drove around us, and then was stopped by a gentleman across from us.  The deputies followed him over to his area and then got out and appeared to be writing a report; with one of the deputies going inside his motorhome.

We did have a lot of folks, looking a bit on the shaggy side, walk near our campsite, but no one really ever bothered us.  We had one lady that walked by and tried to get close to Leah, and Leah just wasn’t buying that she was on friendly terms.  So we did tell her that she might bite.  The lady after that still walked by several different occasions-but stayed far enough out of Leah’s reach.

Brian met one of the “locals” of Slab City and he stated that no one will really bother another camper, for fear they don’t know if they are packing any kind of weapons.  Those that do live out here year round and have been here for many, many years, usually are loners and don’t bother no one. 

 

I think that the trash was more disturbing than those that live out here.  There is a group that is trying to clean up Slab City, but not sure how far they really are getting.   The biggest fear we had was getting a tired punctured from God only knows what on the roadways, tons of broken glass.

There was a little stench to the air-but tolerable.  Many signs of where other campers had dumped their gray and black water anywhere they wanted to.

Remember one thing-there really are no rules or regulations out there; it’s no-man’s land.  No speed limits-so many drove like bat out of hell or the devil was chasing them.  Dogs off leash running rampant and not sure if up to dates on shots.   But one thing for sure-those dogs were loyal to their owners, and looked to be feed much better than their human companions.  No noise control-although I have to say during the nights was still quiet.  In fact any noise we got was mostly from the military base on the other side of the canal when they were bomb practicing.  A few times it actually shook us.  Once in a while a woman would scream and then be quiet-never figured that one out.

We now can say we did Slab City.  Will we do it again?  Probably not.  Not because the people “scared” us,  but because of the trash that is piled around.  Just made us feel “dirty”.  But with that said, don’t judge this place unless you at least spend one night out there.  These folks have their reasons for being there, and it’s not up to us to judge them or to treat them negatively.  You at least need to learn to appreciate “Slab City” and then be Thankful for what you do have.