Hiking Yosemite's Half Dome, and More Big Trees

With less than a week to get from Sacramento to Las Vegas, we had to prioritize our time in the parks in between.  Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Death Valley National Parks were all so close by, but we decided to spend most of our time in Yosemite.  This is a park that we both had heard so much about.  We wanted to do the famous "Half Dome" hike.  When we arrived, we found out that the cables that allow people to climb up the last  - very steep - 400 feet of the dome had already been taken down for the season, and that without climbing equipment we wouldn't be able to reach the summit.  Disappointed but never deterred, we set out anyway, to see how far we could get.

 

 

 

We decided to camp halfway up the first night.  The ascent was steep and rough with heavy packs!

 

But the heavy packs proved to be worth it that evening with a nice campfire!

 

The next morning we left the packs at the campground and felt light as a feather for the rest of the way up.

 

When we reached the point where the cables USED to be, we continued climbing for a while, until it got too steep for us.  We resisted the urge to keep going on to the top with a look down - it was definitely getting a little precarious.

 

We satisfied ourselves with knowing that we made it almost to the top of Half Dome, and had we not had the bad luck of getting there out of season, we would have made it the whole way.  Not a very glamorous tale to tell, but ... c'est la vie.  We got back down to where our gear was waiting, and hauled it down the long, steep path back.  Until next time, Half Dome...

 The very evening we got back from hiking Half Dome happened to be Halloween.  We learned that there was to be a special event called a "Cemetery Walk" in Yosemite's cemetery and went to check it out.  We wandered between gravestones as a guide dressed in period clothing told interesting stories about some of the people who are buried there.  It was a unique way to spend Halloween, but those poor kids all dressed up in costume just wanted some candy, I'm afraid!

 

 

We went to Kings Canyon National Park next and spent the night in a campground there.  We had an unexpected guest at dinner, a little raccoon we named "Coonie".  She was not shy about begging for food!  She even climbed up on the picnic table and tried to steal things when our backs were turned.  She was a little charmer though, and in the end I think she ate about half our food!

 

 

In Sequoia National Park, we were again amazed at beautiful, towering trees.  The Coastal Redwoods that we had seen earlier in our trip are the tallest trees in the world, but the Giant Sequoia is the largest tree by volume.  Just look at these enormous trunks!

Ricardo with General Grant, the widest tree in the park.

General Sherman, the largest known tree, by volume, in the world

 

In Sequoia National Park we had one last stop, Moro Rock.  Moro Rock is called Sequoia's "Half Dome" - but the difference is that you can drive almost the whole way there.  Yes, it's the easy way out, but we were running short on time.  We parked at the bottom and climbed the 400 stairs to get up to the top - a cool trip regardless!  The view from the top was spectacular.  And at least we really made it to the top of this one :)

 

If you notice the winding road behind me in the last picture, that was our way down and out of the park and toward Death Valley and Las Vegas.... that post soon to come!

 

Frisco and Sacramento

So we went from the great Redwoods in the North of California down somewhere else. Let me tell you that never in my life did I even imagine I could or would ever see something like that!!! I have seen many things, but that is simply amazing. If you ever walk among these giant trees, and not only from the road taking pictures and getting back in your car! I mean really walk among those giants, a few miles at least, grasping every moment, breathing the smell of the earth, which really has a special smell there, and see the difference in the light from the morning to noon,too evening and night (because you have to walk a few miles at night!) you will see what I mean. One day I'll be back there for sure, for my eyes will never let me forget that wonder!

This is not even the giant redwood trees and still they take my breath away!

So even when you have been travelling for almost two months and you get used to see new things every day, you will have to sometimes remember to close your mouth!


I felt like I was in The Lord Of The Rings!
 

So on we go to San Francisco to meet a couple of great friends: Diego and Helen! We rush to the city for several hours, including a nice barbecue on the beach on our way there (we thought we had plenty of time)

Aren't you jealous?? This was a great view, food, and even Chilean Music!

We made it to the city way too late! they had already arrived hours before and were waiting for us at their hotel. We managed to take a couple of pictures as we crossed the  Golden Gate Bridge, or whatever it is called, in the middle of the night.

Diego and Helen are among the most awesome people you will eve meet! They flied all the way from Tampax, Florida, just to meet with us. They booked a hotel in the middle of the city and they let us stay with us for the whole time we all spend there, It was great!

Diego is from Chile and Helen is from the US. They met in Chile several years ago and now they have moved to Florida, although after this visit to Frisco they are seriously considering moving there instead.

The first night we went out we had a few beers and Helen and Jocelyn went back to the hotel, leaving Diego and I to do some city exploring! We had a great time! Most of the night we were lost because we had never been there before, but we managed to talk to several awesome people and find a place that was still open and sold us some more beer! We walked quite a bit, but with the daylight next day, it was pretty hard to really remember where we had been! We talked about many things, including life and death, our lives in a different country, human behaviour, religion, politics...too many things to count! He is one smart and very liberal being, and we had been freinds for a very long time!

The next morning we all went sight seeing in the city, which lasted pretty much the whole day. We visited the downtown area, and then we took a boat that went undet the Golden Gate Bridge, or whatever, and the famous Alcatraz Island! That was something to see! First we went to a bunch of places then we visited China Town!

 

We went to different areas and out of the blue I was asked to perfom with a local group of Chinese musicians! That was quite something, and I can now add it to my resume, hehe.

After that we visited Alcatraz (not really, we were not allowed to dock there, just to circle the island) and we went to a restaurant and went back to the hotel for some rest.

 

Next morning we left the hotel for some more sight seeing in the town. Despite being travelling for almost two months, Frisco really is a beautiful city! I'm absolutely sure I will come back there some day, and probably under different circumstances. Diego and Helen, you guys rock!

So after saying goodbye to our great friends, we headed for Sacramento to meet up with another friend I met in Chile about 10 years ago, Sonja, who's been living there for a couple of years.

She took us wine tasting in the area and even though I'm not much of a wine kind of person, I did enjoy these ones quite a bit!
Sonja is a great friend and she has actually travelled and lived in many different countries.
After the tasting we went to the actual old town of Sacramento for a walk and some history tours of the gold fiever from the 1840`s and 1850`s in the area. Sacramento has been the only town so far still has that  "Old West" kind of look. I really enjoyed that town.

Finally we went to a Mexican restaurant for some tacos or whatever and believe it or not, we were treated with a nice "Mariachi" band that actually sang several songs that we requested, including a few that I used to sing myself. That was fun!

This band was really good and gave us a short taste of what it is soon to come once we cross into Mexico.
After dinner we went to the more modern part of town for a beer and then to bed. Next morning we said goodbye to Sonja and left. We didn't make it more than 10 miles when the car started giving us trouble. We managed to stop at a car repair shop and found out that we had to replace the distributor, which had gone so bad it wasn't even turning anymore!
We got it fixed and on we went...to Yosemite!!!!
But that is a new post, so ready this one first! ;)

Among Giants: Redwood National Park

We drove south from rainy Portland only to encounter: more rain!  The decision we made to continue south along the Oregon coastline seemed more and more ridiculous as we crawled along the winding road in the rain for days.  Reaching the Pacific was a milestone for us, and the coastline surely was beautiful, but the weather was taking its toll on us.  The constant rain, aside from just being generally depressing, kept us mostly confined to the camper even though we were camping in some beautiful parks.  It was lowering our gas mileage.  The pop-out tent in the Cub, which had withstood rain just fine previously, got saturated from the constant downpour and was leaking.  The mattress was wet, our pillows were wet, and we got dripped on every so often at night sleeping.  Our mood was not good!

Still along the coast, we crossed into California toward Redwood National Park, hoping desperately that rain would not spoil our visit there. It was raining on our way in, but miraculously the rain stopped and the sun began to filter down through the trees as we got out to admire some of the enormous redwoods in the park. 

Encouraged by the change in weather and in awe at the place we were in, we began asking for recommendations on good hikes in the area.  We got word of a good day hike in the southern area of the park and headed there.  We couldn't help stopping every few minutes or so, though, to check out the groves of the biggest trees we had ever seen!  Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world.  We felt tiny next to these giants.

 

 

By the time we arrived at the trailhead for our 10-mile hike it was already 3:30 in the afternoon.  Sunset time: 6:20.  Do we forgo the hike? Of course not!! We grabbed our headlamps and set out. The hike was incredible. The huge trees, the ferns, and the mist all made it seem like we were walking through a fantasy world.  We spent so much time looking WAY up to the tops of the trees, we started feeling dizzy!

Standing under the roots of a redwood

 

We reached Fern Canyon, where, supposedly, they shot some scenes of Jurassic Park, though we didn't recognize the area as being part of the movie.  We realized that we had 5 miles to go to get back to the car, and it was already 5:30.  We'd better pick up the pace - no more posing for photos with big trees!

Fern Canyon - part of Jurassic Park??

 Well those headlamps came in handy after all...we ended up walking the last couple miles in the dark.  Even in the dark, the forest was charming - we left elated after a day of no rain and arguably the most beautiful hike we've ever done.