After the busy few days of Las Vegas, LA, Knott’s Berry Farm and Hollywood, we decided it was time for a return to the National Parks.
Driving from Visalia into Sequoia would give us plenty of time to see the trees though we knew we would be pushed to get much further north as we were heading quite a way east.
I booked a hotel in Fresno using Google Local and a few other sites. This one took a while to sort out – maybe an hour of searching and I even tried to work out if we had enough points on any of the Reward schemes to get a free room. The answer is not by far.
When you sign up to hotel reward schemes they promise a lot. “Just 3 nights and get a free night” said one of them. Not mentioning that you would need to stay 3 nights in their Penthouse Suite at their Moon location to make up enough points. That’s why these points schemes get their own page…
The biggest trees in the world
I knew from reading the Guinness Book of Records for the last 30 years that some of the largest trees on earth are in Sequoia National Park, so this was an exciting one for me. Obviously, we headed straight for General Sherman. For those who haven’t heard of it, it is arguably, the largest single living organism on the earth.
I knew it was a long drive either side, and we also planned to visit Yosemite which is directly north of the Sequoia park. This meant staying somewhere in the middle. The virtual pin made an appearance again and we decided that Visalia would be a good location.
As soon as we entered the Sequoia National Park it was obvious that the trees everywhere were big, so the giant forest, was going to huge.
General Sherman is pretty gobsmackingly big. You get a bit of warning on the mile or so walk down to the Giant Forest Grove as you pass bigger and bigger trees. But even then, General Sherman is sufficient to open the widest mouth. There was a bit of a queue to get your picture taken with him, but he didn’t smile. It isn’t actually possible to fit the whole thing into a standard camera lens.
A bit further into the park, and you reach the Post Office. You can get quite a lot of stuff here as it services the campers as well. A young guy, (bit of a redneck) was busy smoking a cigarette and casually tossed the burning butt into some dry grass with a wry laugh. I guess that’s why most of the parks are on fire every year. Doh.
Next stop was the General Grant tree. This is actually taller than General Sherman and had me wondering if they argued about who should get which one.
Only kidding, of course I realise that General Sherman always got his way.
After the park, we headed to Fresno for the night, ready for the trip to Yosemite tomorrow.