Sequoia National Park

5/31

We left Southern California for the Core of Engineers campground on Success Lake, east of Porterville, CA. The temperature forecast was ominous, 100’s for the coming week for central CA all the way to the California - Oregon border. The satellite view of our campground didn’t hold much hope for shade!

On our trip north, we passed field after field of orange groves.  There were even some newly planted groves.  The citrus industry must be doing well in California.

The time indicated is
eastern time

Our ultimate destination for this stop was Sequoia National Park.  We were going into this totally ignorant of how and where to get into the park, hoping there would be some info at the campground. Well, there was no one around.  We paid for our site online so we just found it and started setting up.  The outside temperature was 108.  After we got setup, it had dripped down to a cool 105!

It was still early in the day so we went for a drive to check out a small road that we thought would lead to the park..  Luckily, we came across a ranger station.  It was closed but that would be our first stop in the morning

6/1

We got an early start, stopping by the ranger station to get the low down on the park.  The short cut road turned out not to be, so it would take us about an hour to get to the park.  The route passed through the now familiar California hills.





We pulled into the park visitors center and as we were walking up to the door there was a volunteer standing by the flag pole looking like she was waiting to give a talk about something.  The talk was on Mountain Lions but no one had shown up.  We said well, we're here so go ahead.  

Commonly Asked Questions About Mountain Lions

There are two entrances to Sequoia, we were on the “Foothills” side.  The main distinction was the road up to the elevation where the trees start growing  (around 5000 ft.) was extremely windy.  No vehicles over 22 ft. were allowed. There's a campground at the park with a few big rigs.  They obviously drove up from the other entrance.

Sequoia is all about the big trees, and they are impressive.  But another enjoyable aspect was the elevation and a respite from the heat in the valley.  We had a great day at Sequoia enjoying all aspects of the park.  Here's some pictures...

The Sentinel

If a tree falls in the woods...  Well, this one surly made a sound!  Notice the shattered trunk as it trails off into the distance.

Crescent Meadow

Sequoia wildlife

General Sherman, notice people at the base

Sunset over Success Lake

Coming next, Yosemite

Southern California

So, here we are in Southern California.  What a disappointment!  The streets weren't paved in gold and we didn't see the first movie star.  In fact, it looked like the same desert we'd left in Arizona!

 Soon there were mountains on the horizon.

The road got wider and the traffic got heavier.

We passed through a forest of wind turbines.

Then the LA smog loomed on the horizon. Yes, we ARE in California!

The route to our next campground had us leaving I-10, going west on 60, a road known to the locals as the "Badlands" because of it's hilly winding lunar landscape... and no cell service!

The destination was Rancho Jurupa, a county park just across the Santa Ana River from Riverside CA.  We had a nice site, with a large tree that shaded us most of the day.

Our site was in the older campground. There's a new, very ritzy section with concrete pads surrounded by lush  grass.  Our site was mostly sand with sporadic grass.   

Our section had pay showers, $.50 for 3 min.  The ritzy section had bathroom with combination locks presumably to keep the rif-raf out, like us from the low rent district.  

 

The ritzy section had a nice new laundry, again behind combination locks.  When I asked about the laundry, we were given that combination, but when I asked about the bathrooms, she said “Oh no, I can’t give that out!”  I just smiled, shook my head, and walked away.

Don’t get me wrong, we’d have probably paid the extra money to get a spot in “upper crust” section, but there were no openings.

Unfortunately we couldn’t keep our spot through the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend so we started shopping for another spot.  We found Country Hills RV Park in Beaumont ,CA. and they had a spot for us through the holiday.  This was not a state or county park and, as is often the case with commercial parks in urban areas, the majority of the park was occupied by permanent residents.  Our site was pretty small, just enough room to extend our slide out and awning without hitting anything.  There were a couple of small trees that shaded us in the morning and early afternoon, but by late afternoon we were in full sun.  That wasn’t too bad, the temps were running in the high 40’s at night and mid 70’s during the day.  By the time we left it was getting in the mid 80’s with forecast of 90’s and 100’s for the coming week.

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We had a nice visit with Joan’s niece, Cindy, her husband Clint and their two kids Brooke and Beau.  They live in Redlands,  CA.  Redlands is very nice little community about 70 miles east of LA.  Of the little towns in the area, we liked Redlands the best.  It’s an older community with lots of well maintained older homes in various styles along with more modest homes.

 

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Beau and his JOKER

Brooke's BATMAN
 awarded honorable mention

The first evening we were there, the kids had an art fair. Everyone (except Brooke who was working) went down to the school to see the work of all the budding artists.  There was defiantly a theme going here.













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Every Thursday, main street in Downtown Redlands is closed off for a street fair and farmers market.  With plenty of street food available, we choose Koren  Tacos with pulled pork and chicken, a true international dish.  They tasted great, but like Chinese food, we were hungry about an hour later.

 

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One of our side trips took us to a garden managed by the Wetlands Conservancy.  There was a sampling of many of the ecosystems found in California.  Here's some pictures...

 

Wildlife

Coot and chicks

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Beau is heavily into scateboarding and the town of Redlands doesn't have a municiple scateboard park.  All the towns around including San Bernardiono have scateboard parks.  So, there was a fund raiser for a Redmonds park at ... a local craft Brewery!  Well, we just HAD to go and show our support!

Ritual Brewing Co. is not a quaint little operation.  It's housed in a large modern industrial park where all the buildings look alike.


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Joan and I shared two tasting flights.  While none of the beers really struck our fancy, after a while, it really didn't matter, everything tasted good!

Outside, some of the kids were showing off their skills.

 

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On Memorial we had a nice cook out at our camper with Cindy, Clint, Beau and one of Beau's friends (Brooke had a project due for school the next day).  Believe it or not, we forgot to take any pictures!  After the holiday, it was time to move on to our next stop.

Coming next, Sequoia National Park.