More Big Trees

Its time to move on to our next stop. It'll be nice to get out of this fog. It's been foggy everyday since we arrived. Apparently our visit to San Francisco was on one of the least foggy days in weeks. Lucky I guess.

Our next stop, about 180 miles south is much better; not! Apparently, this central area of the state is foggy a lot due to the moist ocean air being pushed up against the Sierra Nevada mountains. That's OK, that's where we're headed next, to see Giant Sequoia National Park.

As we leave about 60 feet in altitude and climb to over 7000 feet, we leave the fog behind. The road used to go under this rock, I suppose they had to go around because too many semi's got stuck. 

At Tunnel Rock, there is a huge cave under the big rock beside me. There was major excavation done and hundreds of Indian artifacts were found. The red on the rock beside me is ancient rock paintings.

This is at about 6000 feet. Notice the fog that fills the valleys at lower altitudes. 

Finally we arrive at the location of the biggest Sequoia trees. They grow at an altitude of between 5000 and 7000 feet. This is nothing after being in Peru.

At the altitude where the giants grow, its cool with a bit of snow. Sequoias grow in groves with a bunch together, then none for miles. Its the way their seeds distribute I guess. 

This is the worlds largest living thing. It's 275 feet high, not nearly as high as some of the Giant Redwoods we saw, but much larger around. Redwoods grow tall and slender while Sequoias are shorter and fatter. Still, 275 feet is still tall.  

The tree in the centre is General Sherman. It doesn't look that tall does it? You can see the huge diameter and how thick it stays as it rises. The branches near the top are over 7 feet in diameter, that's wider than your reach. 

Almost all of them have been through numerous fires in their 2 to 3 thousand years. The bark on the big trees is over 3 feet thick and fire proof. If fire gets to the tree through a crack or damage, the tree doesn't burn either and this type of burn doesn't hurt it. The surprising thing is the bark is soft and spongy.

At the other end of the park is another grove of huge Sequoias. 

This tree is called the General Grant and for years was considered the largest until the General Sherman tree was found. The General Grant is actually 3.5 feet wider at its base (40.3', which is wider than a 3 lane highway) than the General Sherman but not as tall or as old. Its considered the second largest living thing. If grammie was to stand right beside the tree, she'd be shorter than that black spot in the middle of the tree. Amazing, huh? 

Photos don't do it justice, but trust me, it's huge. Remember, the branches are over 7' wide. 

This tree fell in the early 1800's and was hollowed out by fires over the years. It was used as homes, a tavern, and used to house 32 horses by the U.S. cavalry. 

Here's grammie standing at the small end of the fallen tree. The tree fell around 200 years ago and is still solid. The light in the middle is the opening where the horses were stabled. Both the Redwoods and Sequoias are so impressive and we're so glad we were able to visit these giants.

Sac N San

It's time to leave our campground of giants and head further south before these trees get any bigger and we can't get out.

After getting settled into our next stop, we took a day and went to see Sacramento, the state capitol of California. It started out as a staging area for gold miners heading  to the California gold fields. As paddle wheel boats dropped off thousands of gold seekers, the town of Sacramento sprung up to fleece them ( I mean to provide necessary support for their ventures). 

Old Sacramento is a 28 acre town filled with historical buildings and museums relating to the gold rush era. Its one of the best authentic towns we've seen. Every building, right down to those in the alleys are original. Inside the buildings are the usual tourist trap stuff but there are also great museums with impressive artifacts. Cobble stone streets and wooden sidewalks add to the authenticity. 

Sacramento is the state capitol and so we walked a few blocks to see the capitol building. Its nice, but we figured for such a big state, it would be more impressive. 

The main reason we stopped where we are is to spend some time in San Francisco. We drove to the nearest light rail station and took the train into downtown San Fran. It was about a 20 block hike to get to the tourist areas. For some reason, the street cars went opposite to the direction we wanted to go so we just watched them go by. 

Once we hit the bay, we started hiking toward where the cool stuff is. That's the Bay bridge, much longer than the Golden gate. Parts of it collapsed in the 1989 earthquake. How'd you like to fall into the bay from it? 

Pier 39 is the iconic symbol of the Bay area. Its about 1/3 restaurants, 1/3 stores and 1/3 amusement park. Now this is authentic California!

Lots to do here with magicians, a 2 story merry-go-round and kids activities. Not to mention bars and jewelry stores. Way in the background you can see the Transamerica pyramid and the Coit tower on telegraph hill. Don't tell me you haven't heard of them before. 

How about Alcatraz Island? This is the view from the end of pier 39. 

With us out of the picture, the island looks much larger doesn't it? The prison was closed in the 1960's not because it was a brutal prison, they didn't really care about the conditions, it was closed because it cost $1000.00 per day per prisoner to operate. Everything including water had to be delivered each day. Now its a major tourist attraction. They turn away about 1000 tourists each day who want to go see the island, including us. Apparently you need to make a reservation, who knew.

The other thing Pier 39 is famous for are its sea lions. Each day hundreds bask in the sun on these floating docks. I guess its not sunny enough, there's only about a dozen lying there. 

Walking further down the bay brought us to Fishermans Wharf, probably the most famous fish place in the world. Its another wharf that used to be where the fishboats docked and you could buy fish right off their boats as well as at a huge fish market. Now, its just restaurants. If you notice the people in the front right, they are eating clam chowder in a sour dough bowl. That's the Bay areas famous culinary contribution to gastronomy. Every restaurant sells it for $8 to $13.  

We ate at Nicks Light House, one of the well known seafood restaurants on Fishermans Wharf. Neither of us had the chowder in a bread bowl; too much carbs. We both ordered seafood which came with sour dough bread on the side which we promptly devoured. So much for watching our carbs. 

After lunch we decided that the only way to see the major areas of San Francisco was to take a tour. The city is 7 miles wide and 7 miles long which doesn't seem like much until you start walking. Time goes by with lots still to see, so we're a riding.

This is a great way to see the city. The famous China town area borders the Little Italy area and the Russian area. Bet the only one you've heard about is China town, right? 

The earthquake of 1906 started a huge fire and destroyed most of the city. A whole block of buildings were blown up to stop the fire, saving some of the downtown, like this area. 

The city hall has been destroyed twice by earthquakes so in the last few years, the whole building has been put on shock absorbers. 

According to the tour guide, San Francisco has the most expensive homes in the U.S. These are typical of whole areas of the residential part of Haight Ashbury (remember the hippy days). They run about 5 million apiece; not bad huh. 

These homes are called "The Painted Ladies" because they are identical but painted in different colours. The last one sold for 8 million. That's what you'd pay for a Picasso, but then you couldn't live in it could you.

Most of San Francisco is connected by trolleys. Over the years they have bought old unused trolleys from most of the major U.S. cities and refurbished them. Almost every trolley is different with some dating back almost 100 years. Every trolley is like a work of art. Trolley watching is a great way to spend time. 

Now, what tour of San Francisco would be complete without a picture of the Golden Gate bridge. As you can see, it's not golden, but red. I guess gold paint is too expensive. Hope you've enjoyed our brief tour of this iconic American city. 

The Giant Trees

We're set up at the campground and  Grammie has a load of laundry in the machine so lets head out and check out Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The main road through the park is a single lane gravel road which winds its way through these huge trees. Have you ever seen anything so big? 

Check out this road. It was just like this for over 10 miles. Awesome! 

Pictures don't show the height and awesome splendor of these huge forest giants. They're so tall their tops are in the fog when at the ground it's clear.

I bet you thought the one I stood beside earlier was big; so did I, but check this one out. No, this hasn't been photo edited (whatever that is). 

We didn't do this, we found it this way. Have you ever used one of those stump grinders to get rid of a stump? Can you imagine using it on this?  

I found a big one so Grammie had to find a bigger one. Showoff. Giant Redwood trees are the tallest living things on earth. The Giant Sequoia  is bigger around but not as tall. Isn't this amazing.

After walking through the redwood forest for an hour or so, we came across this sign. I'm sure its a joke. We left shortly after. 

Have you seen pictures of cars driving through giant trees? So have we, so when we found a tree like this we just had to drive through. Now that's a big tree. 

Tighter than it looks. A little push and our car popped out just fine.

As we've driven along the Oregon and now the California coast, we've seen this sign numerous times. Its hard to make out but says Tsunami Hazard Zone. And people live in these areas. Brave souls. 

Our next campsite is near Leggett, California. Now we've camped in a lot of interesting places like on the beach, in a meadow or beside a river, but I think this is the most awesome spot we've stayed. Surrounded by giants. The problem was, when it finally stopped raining, we didn't know it for an hour because of the dripping from the trees.

We are only a few miles from Humboldt Redwoods State Park so we drove through the park and stopped at the visitors centre. This is probably the worlds first motor home, called the Kellogg Travel Log. The wooden body was carved from a single redwood tree and mounted on a 1915 Nash Quad truck by Charles Kellogg. He drove it all over the U.S. inspiring people to help save the redwoods. It was fully decked out with a bed, tables and chairs and wash stand with sink, all made from the same redwood tree (not the sink, it was metal). He was most famous for his ability to sing the most accurate and beautiful bird songs and filled concert halls with his demonstrations. He did not whistle, he sang. A tape of his songs played as we walked around the centre; absolutely amazing. 

A lot of effort was being made at that time to save the giant redwoods from being cut down. They were not protected then. About 10% of the original forests have been saved, a lot due to his efforts. This was one of the trains used to haul the trees from the forest. Each flat car had one log on it due to their enormous size. Laying on the flat car, some logs were twice as high as the train engine. 

The drive through the park is called "Avenue of the Giants". It's 32 miles long and weaves through trees like this. No matter how many you see, they're still awe inspiring. This area of California had a huge flood in 1964 and this spot was under more than 50 feet of water. These trees are 250 feet high or more and probably didn't even notice their feet were wet. Redwood tree bark can be a foot thick and the trees contain tannin, both of which prevent insect attack. Even forest fires don't hurt them because the thick bark doesn't burn. That's why they live for 2000 years and grow so huge; nothing hurts them.

Even when wind blows them over, they're impressive. We've heard of the giant redwoods for years and have finally seen them for ourselves. To actually stand beside these giants and look up until you fall backwards is a thrill no pictures can duplicate. So far, this has been the natural highlight of our trip. Not that the ocean wasn't great too. Or the mountains....