Day 13 Squaw Valley CA to King's Canyon National Park to Monterey, CA

  June 24, 2024  Mileage   Start:  26492  End:  26822  Total: Day/Time  330/4117

Got up in Squaw Valley (not that Squaw Valley, a tiny one east of Fresno) and drove to King's Canyon National Park. Not nearly as crowded as Sequoia, but with plenty of huge trees and a beautiful, steep-walled canyon. Rugged country, it took about an hour of driving over serious 2-lane mountain roads to get there, going up about 6000 feet from Squaw valley, then going down almost 3000 into the canyon. First, a shot of the canyon from on high:

Some pretty shots from the canyon floor.



I got the money shot (at least for geologists!) along the highway, had to hike back up the road to get it. It's not marked on maps or mentioned anywhere, because there's no place to stop or pull off in front of it, but I saw a picture of it and started looking...and saw it on the way out. Those are chevron folds caused by compressional tectonic forces...and it just looks cool.


The drive across the Central Valley from mountain range to mountain range (3+ hours) was filled again with groves and farm land. Got to Monterey (61 degrees!) and it was time for a cold one, so here's the flight from Other Brother's Brewery in Monterey. From left to right: Lager, Hefweizen, Hazy, Mexican dark lager. Not pictured: Fruited sour, Double IPA. And man, do I have a great story from the brewery! But I'm not telling it here...


And after dinner we stopped on the coast at twilight.


Spending 2 nights here, so I'm catching up! 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 18 Gila Bend AZ to Organ Pipe and Saguaro to Sunsites AZ

Image
June 29, 2024   Mileage   Start:  27808  End:  28153  Total:  Day/Trip  345/5442 It's Cactus Day! Besides being in the desert, again, we visited Organ Pipe National Monument and Saguaro National Park before stopping for the day. While both contained saguaro, cholla, barrel, and prickly pear cactus, the only organ pipes were in...Organ Pipe. Saguaro also had several varieties of cholla. There were rock formations, but the highlight of these 2 parks were the cacti. First picture is the namesake of the first park - the organ pipe cactus. There are a couple of smaller ones around it, and a few saguaros in the background. One of the 2 new varieties of cholla cactus here. Many signs warning people to stay clear of them and carry tweezers to remove the spines. We just kept our distance, thank you very much. Next shot is a double arch from Organ Pipe, look closely at the top to see the second arch "piggybacked" on the first. A view with saguaros...
Read more

Day 8: Grand Junction CO to Arches (Moab, UT)

Image
 June 19th, 2024   Mileage  Start:  25039   End: 25236     Total: Day/Trip  197/2531 A relatively short hour and 40 minute drive, largely on I-70, then south. Had 10 a.m. reservations (and my Senior Parks Pass), sailed in at 9:48, whisked me right in. Pit stop at the visitors center, then we began the 18 mile drive through the park. There were roadside formations, short hikes to formations, and long hikes to formations. It was 94 degrees in the park. We didn't do any long hikes, but did several in the quarter-half mile range. Cliffs, hoodoos, balanced rocks, arches of course, and just some cool rock formations. Awed, humbled, thankful for such an amazing display of nature and God's handiwork. We agreed it exceeded our expectations. Dinner at Moab Brewery, too hungry to take pictures of the food and so thirsty we finished a few before we remembered to take a picture. We had a filtered wheat, an unfiltered wheat, hazy IPA, English amber, a...
Read more

Day 6 Bartlesville, OK to Evergreen, CO

Image
 June 17, 2024  Mileage  Start: 23953  End: 24632    Total:  Day/Trip  679/1927 A long drive, the longest of our trip. Mostly I-70, but a lot of empty 2-lanes before we got to 70. Blessed once again with clear skies and light traffic (except Denver at 4:30, but I anticipated that). On the road about 9 hours and 40 minutes total. The most memorable parts of the drive: lots of BIG wind farms, plus high winds that caused several areas of restricted visibility due to blowing dust. And farm land, farm land, farm land. And flat rocks. Went to dinner-surprise!- at a craft brewery 5 miles from the hotel, Evergreen Craft Brewery. Small and uncrowded, we got a flight, a NY-style wood-fired pizza, and a salad. All (yes, even the salad) were really good. For those keeping track, bottom to top: Belgian  Blonde, Mexican Amber Ale, Kolsch, and Belgian Golden Strong. We liked them so well we split a 5th 5oz. glass, a Hazy Pale Ale, also good. And we're out o...
Read more