Posted by “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir
Good Day, dear Readers!
Welcome back to the Splash Zone. Today, I’m going to walk you through Trail of 100 Giants and Sequoia National Park, plus 5 hours of driving from the California Desert to some beautiful, and much needed fresh mountain air. Side note: windows down, 40°F, and pine trees are the best smelling thing you can ever experience. My mood went from a 2 to 12 in 2 seconds.
Step 1: get a Ford F250 6.7L turbo diesel to drive around for a month. It’ll change your life. Once complete: take a drive up from Palmdale on Highway 14 to the turnoff for Lake Isabella and drive through Kernville, CA. Its a toght,tight, road with limited turnoffs, so drive slow and take in the scenery. You’ll have less stress and see more than you intended.
As you continue to drive, the air changes, and the stress starts to melt away more and more. I mean, how could it NOT with these views and the sweet smell of fresh pine in a cool morning?!
The Trail of 100 Giants was EMPTY by the time we got there and we had plenty of time to jump around d the trees and wander around before it got hot.
There’s dozens of these beasts in this area. As a matter of fact, Trail of 100 Giants is the furthest south grove of the Giant Sequoia Tree. These trees only grow in the space on the western Sierra mountains 269 miles north to south, and 20 miles east to west. There’s a map at the trailhead that shows where these true giants grow. They are also thousands of years old. Within the trail there is a few ‘baby’ Sequoia trees that are 80-100 years old that are the size of a normal pine tree.
As you continue down the other side of the mountain to head to the valley and up to Sequoia National Park, you’ll take some very curvy mountain roads and see some small towns in California. Seriously, the entire way down switchback after switchback.
Anyway, as you head back up into SNP you’ll see the scenery change back into giants amongst the living.
As you walk around (hopefully with less people than you anticipated for), there’s a lot of Sequoia’s on the area. You’ll look over and see a tree, “oh, look, a tree” and continue to walk toward it, then slowly realize “this tree is a quarter mile away…” and then finally reach the base of this thing… That’s what it’s like walking around the woods up there. Sequoias only grow from 7,700 feet elevation. So be prepared with water and somewhat of a hiker’s body. ‘Welcome to Altitude’ as one of my favorite cities in the USA like to remind me (Mammoth Lakes, CA).
The General Sherman Tree is the LARGEST tree on earth. Not the tallest or the widest, but the overall largest beast ever.
After about an hour, I was over the people aspect of this area – It was PACKED. So, we finished up the hike and made our way down the mountain and back to Palmdale. Its only a 5 hour drive one way, but it was surprisingly fast.
There’s not a lot of shade in the California Desert. Hence desert, I guess? Anyway, the California Aqueduct runs right through the area, and they’ve even dedicated an overlook to this view. Worth a quick stop on the northbound Highway 14 just before reaching Palmdale Blvd.
These were the quick trips I got the opportunity to take when we didn’t have a lot going on with work. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I travel a LOT for my job. Mostly to places people don’t want to be: The Desert in the Western States. Its things like this that break up the monotony of the work and the time I get to spend with friends and family when I’m out there.
Unitl Next Time,
Jessica
Geek Havok 