After today’s breakfast at the motel we headed for the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The tour first led through an area used for winegrowing and fruit-growing, then more and more upwards until reaching the Kings Canyon’s park entrance.
There we had a look into the visitor center first before going to visit the General Grant Tree. This one is the second-largest tree on earth and the sequoia with the largest trunk diameter – 12 meters. Really impressive!
Then we drove to the Sequoia National Park, both parks merge seamlessly. The road partly conducted us with adventurous turns, grades and down-grades, but it made fun anyway. Once more we enjoyed a scenic view before arriving about half an hour later at the Sequoia visitor center. Of course we found some souvenirs here, then we started for the largest tree on earth, the General Sherman Tree.
That one was reached after nearly 2 miles driving, and some minutes hiking. The tree is with a height of 84 meters not the highest one in the world, but with its mightiness the largest one. It has a perimeter at its base of more than 31 meters and a trunk volume of about 1500 cubic meters! “Giants of the woods” is probably the only proper naming of these sequoias. Some pictures were also taken showing us in front of it – without such a comparison one cannot estimate the real size of such tree.
Afterwards we headed for the park’s exit, time had progressed already. A short side trip was made to a fallen sequoia, which was hollowed out to be a tunnel for cars. Of course we had to drive thru there! Then we drove on, and what now came was really to be named adventurous again: the road led steep downhill in many serpentines, from more than 2000 meters to below 900 meters. It was a real stress test for the brakes and the driver!
But we also managed this successfully. Short after the park exit we filled up and headed back to Fresno. We passed a wide lake, beautifully situated in between the mountains, then we passed orchards again. After about 1.5 hours we arrived at our motel – at 37° Celsius.
Now we had only to check where to go for dinner today? A suggestion was found quickly, and so we went – by foot. When we came to the restaurant we had a look at the menu – luckily, because we could immediately go elsewhere, that one wasn’t matching our price range. But - where to now? On the opposite side of the street was an advertisement for a buffet – ok, let’s try it. And it was worth it! An All-You-Can-Eat, we could enjoy different appetizers, main dishes and desserts – the choice was even bigger than at the Las Vegas buffet. So we went back well-sated – some faster, some slower because they wanted to buy something to drink for the evening. Finally we enjoyed a great evening.
