We left Ventura Friday morning with day-time highs in the 60's. A large part of our trip were in mountains, big ones. Way up and then way down. We started out near sea level and our highest elevation of 4,160 was at Tejon Pass. Pat remembered to let the air out of our sleep number bed before we left. A bag of chips popping is one thing, our bed not so much!
There was orchard after orchard with nuts, oranges or halos, and even olive groves. Saw a huge dairy farm. Lots of produce stands with strawberries and oranges. I wasn't tempted with the free shit.
Arrived at Three Rivers Hideaway early afternoon, with temperature at 80°. Sequoia NP and Kings Canyon NP (on the north side of Sequoia) are make-up parks. In 2021 we were one week away from coming here, and actually staying at this same RV Park, when we got a call. Three Rivers Hideaway called to say the town of Three Rivers was being evacuated due to the forest fires in Sequoia NP and Kings Canyon NP and they were closing. We knew Sequoia and Kings Canyon had closed because of the fires and we were trying to decide what we should do. Problem solved, we headed to Napa instead.
This year the parks experienced flooding. The road connecting Sequoia and Kings Canyon is closed due to mud slides, as are major attractions in both parks. We can get to a small portion of Sequoia (a visitor center and a couple of trails) from here, and with a 2 hour drive around, we can get into Kings Canyon, or at least part of it. It's another long drive down into Sequoia NP from the north to see the giant sequoias and the famous General Sherman Tree. The only way back to our campground is to take that long trip in reverse. I had told Pat a while back that if the parks completely closed due to flooding I was going to at least stick my foot on National Park Land and claim it!
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| Fosters Residence Campground, Ventura, CA |
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| I was scrambling for my phone or camera to try and get a picture of what Pat called a pepperoni car. Didn't do a great job of it. |
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| Onions??? |
In July of 2001, Pat, Chris, and myself followed Josh and Eric on part of the solar car race on historic route 66 from Chicago to California. We were surprised to see a Ryder truck pulling through the Sequoia campground. And more surprised to see Josh (our elder son) and Zia in it. Zia had to return the rental up North and they decided to try and find us. Pictures below. Yes, I know I also posted these back in 2021 when we thought we were coming to Sequoia.
Where are the Piepers now? Three Rivers, CA
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