30 SEP 2010

We left Palm Springs to the unusual site of rain. However, as is usual, when it rains there, it really is mostly a sprinkle. This means of course that the temperature is much lower today – a mere 27 as we hit the road. We both feel a bit let down with our visit to Palm Springs because so much of what we planned to do was not possible.

We are constantly amazed by the number of wind mills there are in the valley. If it is called a windmill farm it would be considered well populated. I have never figured out how it is that there can be some turning and others amidst that are not. Wind must be selective I guess.

We headed towards to Las Angeles but we have no intention of going into the city.

The drive is not overly note worthy even though there is lots of country side to see. What did amaze us was the variety of farming we passed. We went through groves of lemon or orange trees (we could not tell the difference), fruit trees of a variety of fruits, olive groves, grape vineyards, and market gardens. We saw the most interesting grazing landscape for cattle where the grass is long and golden color reminding me of ripe wheat in the prairies in color. As well we were really surprised about the number of oil wells along our drive.

We arrived at Sequoia Park to be assured there were still campsites available in Lodge pole Campsite. So we continued on watching the weather with broken clouds. The temperatures have dropped as we climbed to around 22 and this is a very comfortable hiking temperature. The first obstacle we encountered was the road reconstruction. Traffic is only being let through on the hour and of course we reached the flag person about 10 minutes after the hour. This is not a bad thing since everyone is stopped and you end up having a street party while waiting. We met and chatted with several couples and that made it an enjoyable stop. The party downers were little tiny flies that swarmed and on occasion would bite.

When we finally got started we headed up the side of the mountain in switchback. The corners are so tight with the construction in place anything longer than a 22 foot was not permitted to travel up this road. At one point Wes commented that it was like the road you would expect to see on a James Bond movie but we were driving considerably slower. This road has beautiful rock faced cliff guards that was being rebuilt as well as work on the roadbed in some places.

We arrived at the campsite to discover that as of Sept 30, today, they had cut the number of camp sites down in half and the camp grounds was almost completely full. We got one of a very few left and it was one that you parked your car and walked about 50 feet the site. Now in this park, ALL food must be stored in the food bins and NONE is to be left in the cars or outside. To facilitate this, each campsite has a food bin. So it was not too bad to have a campsite overlooking the creek once we got settled in and everything moved from the car.

The sunset this evening was relatively early but with the clouds it was very pretty.