Day 15: Tues July 24, 1962: North to the Sierras
Trip Start
Jul 10, 1973
1
14
37
Trip End
Aug 28, 1973
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California
Tuesday, July 24, 1973
Our destination for the day would be Sequoia National Park. It is most likely we actually did some of Saturday's sightseeing on this morning as we left Los Angeles since Sequoia was only 4 1/2 hours north of Anaheim, but I do not know for sure.
We stopped for gas in San Fernando, California & then, we stopped again in Exeter. Exeter has an elevation of approximately 400 feet; our campsite would be 6,500 feet. The 1 hour drive is quite deceptive because we would be climbing nearly a mile into the sky! The route was naturally full of winding mountain roads with slower than usual driving speeds. We were always concerned about the car overheating in such situations.
Finally, we arrived at the Big Stump entrance to Sequoia National Park & headed to Sunset campground located near Grant Grove Village. There are 4 campsites along the ridge towards the back of Sunset Campground that overlook Sequoia Lake below; we were fortunate enough to procure one of these for the next four nights! Momma always said this was one of her favorite campsites of all time.
Here is a review of these campsites that I found on the internet:
"This is a jewel of a campsite. At night, fire overhangs the ridge, like a descending caldron of bright red and orange and yellow and purple. Venus appears, ultimately, over the ridge, and governs many nights during the Summer, along with Jupiter and Saturn. The Belt of Venus is stunning from this location--utterly stunning in its beauty."
We camped next to a Mom & her two children who lived in California. We were very surprised that they had never been to Disneyland (we thought everyone in California had been since it was closer than 3,000 miles away!). The next morning, the daughter found a scorpion in her shoe! That was SCARY!! We didn't have scorpions in Georgia!! For some reason, she was supposed to send me the scorpion in the mail, but I never got it. I probably wanted it for our science shelf in our bedroom.
After a relaxing afternoon, we settled in for the night. The overnight temperatures were probably in the 50's, but we were so tightly packed into the station wagon, our body heat alone would have kept us snuggy!
Comments
I definitely remember about the scorpion & that she was suppose to send it to you! Crazy the things you remember as a kid!