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...