Searching for Warmth

Leaving Yosemite, shivering with cold at the higher altitudes and eyes smarting from the smoke in the valley, we pointed our truck south in search of southern California’s fabled warm and sunny weather. We stocked up at REI in Fresno with topographical maps, trail advice, and dehydrated meals-in-a-bag to sustain us for a week of backpacking in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, still in the Sierra Nevada range. I backpacked in the high passes on the eastern side of these parks over 20 years ago with my friend Marty, and I was looking forward to exploring the western side, which is also the home of the giant sequoias.

The approach to King’s Canyon from Fresno in the late afternoon is spectacular! Though far from the coast, Fresno is only a few hundred feet above sea level, and the road to the park climbs and winds through beautiful golden hills. I thought California is called “the golden state” because of the sunshine,” or the Gold Rush, but now I wonder whether it’s because of those grassy hillsides that seem to glow in the clear autumn sunlight. We stayed at a lovely AirBnB perched on top of one of those hills a few miles outside the park, and I did a video call with my parents in the morning to share the view with them.

The western entrance to Kings Canyon National Park is relatively high, about 6,500 feet above sea level, and close to a grove of giant sequoias, including the second largest tree, named for Ulysses S. Grant. It’s huge—107 feet in circumference! To reach the canyon, we descended 2,500 feet to the Kings River and followed the river as steep canyon walls rose on either side. We pitched our tent in a virtually empty park campground so we could do some day hikes before taking on a more ambitious backpacking trip and basked in the warm sun and clear blue sky. We enjoyed meeting Dennis and Sue from San Clemente who have been camping in Kings Canyon for 50 years. It really is a special place.

Unfortunately, that was the last clear day for us in Kings Canyon. The park service had scheduled a prescribed burn for the next few days near Roads End, where most of the best trailheads are located. Although the trails remained open, the smoke was heavy in the air, and we decided to abandon the canyon. Bad luck…we loved Kings Canyon and will definitely come back.

Sequoia National Park is just south and adjacent to Kings Canyon. As its name suggests, it too has groves of giant sequoias, and it is the site of the largest living tree in the world. Its name is General Sherman, and though it is not as big around as General Grant (just 103 feet to General Grant’s 107), its extra height gives it greater volume—52,500 cubic feet.

We camped for a couple of nights in one of Sequoia’s campgrounds, but again wimped out of backpacking. This time because of the cold. Lorrie recently bought a small thermometer, and it registered a chilly 35 degrees inside our tent at 7:30am. Even so, we had no trouble staying warm when we could cuddle inside, but it was only 22 degrees outside…and hard to cuddle while making breakfast or planning a hike. So again, we abandoned our plans after just a couple of days.

By this point, we were feeling a bit deflated. Where could we find warmer weather? Well the answer is still in California. We spent a lovely few days hiking in Pinnacles, the newest national park, in the San Benito mountains, where the temperature climbed into the 90s! We saw several California Condors, which are making a comeback after dwindling by the 1980s to just 27 individual birds. And then we drove to Montaña de Oro State Park just south of Morro Bay, where it was even hotter, reaching 101 degrees the day we arrived!  We found our warmth, and then some.

We have now been traveling for six months and are still enjoying ourselves (a lot). However, we are finding it is a very different experience than in summer. The parks and facilities are closing down for the winter—even the “open” campgrounds are sometimes almost completely closed. And avoiding the cold has become a major focus—one that we think we’ve conquered now that we’re out of the higher elevations.

We look forward to visiting a few more national parks in California before heading east again—Channel Islands (off the coast of Santa Barbara), Joshua Tree, and Death Valley. We’ll visit friends in Moab and celebrate Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with Elise. And, we’re starting to think about being home for a few weeks in January and what we’ll do in 2018. Lots to think about.