Umpqua National Forest and Crater Lake National Park

We did some boon-docking in Umpqua National Forest.  Boon-docking has no hook ups so you are totally self contained.  We have done this before and enjoy it.  It means some changes in how you use your resources but not really any sacrifices in terms of quality of living.  One of the reasons we like it is the camp sites tend to be larger, generally more natural and they put you in the park you want to see.  We have found that all campers are friendly but tent campers and those boon-docking are especially nice.

From Umpqua NF we drove about 30 minutes to Crater Lake NP.

Yes the water is really that blue!

prescribed burn

While in Kings Canyon NP they were conducting a prescribed burn.  They used to be called controlled burns but a few got out of control so they changed the name.  Unlike the out of control fire we saw in Yosemite NP this fire was very planned and detailed.  While it did create a lot of smoke that affected our pictures it was cool to see.  The burn was in a very small (10 acres) area with lots of firefighters.

These burns are conducted under very strict guidelines and it will take about 20 years to conduct burns in Kings Canyon NP.  There are lots of reasons for the burns including that fire causes the sequoia seeds to dry, drop and hopefully sprout.

Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP

Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park are basically one park.  While they are separate parks by name they geographically connect.  There was no where available in the parks for the RV so we parked it at an Elks lodge in Fresno.  Yes I am an Elk.  We got a hotel at the south end of Sequoia NP and planned to use it as a base.
Day 1 we saw and hiked Kings Canyon.  It was our first viewing of sequoia trees.

Day 2 we spent time  Sequoia NP and did more hiking and saw more trees.

This is a seed cone from the Giant Sequoia

This is the GPS in map view of the road we drove each day in and out of the parks.

Bears

We went into Southern California from Arizona in April of 2014.  Mostly we followed the coast north with a few excursions inland.  As we got away from the cities we began seeing signs about bears.  "Speed Kills Bears", "Don't Feed the Bears".  We even saw cute road signs depicting a mama bear and 2 cubs with the phrase "Bear Crossing".  It made sense that there would be lots of bears as California is the Bear Republic.  These signs continued all thru Oregon and Washington.  (by the way, they don't call it Washington state out here,  they just call it Washington and refer to Washington D.C. as "the other Washington".)  As we turned south from Washington to head back toward AZ we were more inland and stayed in or visited several National Parks.  Bear warnings were everywhere.

While in the National Parks there were multiple warnings about bears.  The National Parks even provide food containers (Bear Boxes) that you are supposed to put all food in before you go on a hike.  If you are tent camping even your tooth brush and tooth paste are to be stored.  Anything with an odor is to go in the Bear Box.  They tell you they are not responsible for any damage to your car if you leave food in it and a bear damages the car trying to get to the food.

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So we were warned and taking all the proper precautions.  We figured we'd see lots of bears.  We spent April thru mid-November in the 3 states.  In that time we saw 1 bear!

Yup!  That is it.  What a thrill to see a bear so far away you can't even get a good picture!

I think the bear warnings and bear boxes are simply a marketing tool used by each state to try to increase tourism.  Much like Northern Minnesota and Canada do with moose signage!

GPS, Rt. 49 and king pins

We have a GPS in the RV that is made for RVers.  It is made for/by Rand McNally and offers some very nice features.  It will locate Walmarts that allow over night parking, or find gas stations that are truck friendly so our vehicle will fit.  We entered all our RV dimensions such as length, height, weight, how much propane we hold etc.  We even put in our total length with the Jeep attached.  The GPS is then supposed to keep us off any roads that would be hazardous with our particular vehicle.  There was one instance where it was giving us bad directions but we were made aware of the low clearance by the campground host and were easily able to avoid a problem.

In early October were coming out of Reno, NV. headed to a campground near Yosemite NP and the GPS directed us to take I-80 west then head south on Rt. 49.  We looked at a map and saw that 49 was going to cut some miles from taking I-80 west to 99 south then cut back east on 120.  We followed the GPS.

We turned on to 49 and about 100 yards after we were already committed (by this I mean we could not turn around)  we see a sign that says "30 foot king pin not advised".  While towing we are 56 feet long.  We did not know what a king pin was but we were concerned about the 30 foot part.  But there was no place to turn around or even pull over to disconnect and drive separately.  So we had to keep moving until we could get off or turn around.

This road was narrow, very windy with lots of hairpin turns and steep grades.  Some places offered no guard rail.  We were only able to drive at about 10 to 15 mph due to the turns and narrowness of the road.  And  the road was full of pot holes.  We drove for over an hour with both of us white knuckled with elevated heart rates and blood pressure.  Finally, we found a spot where we could get on a better road and head to route 99.  From there the trip was very nice.  What a day.

We have since learned that a king pin is where the pulling vehicle and the trailer attach.  So on a semi truck the king pin is where the trailer meets the rig.  So trucks with trailers can very in length.  We now avoid any road we can with a king pin warning.  Lesson learned!

Mono Lake

We were staying on the west side of Yosemite about 5 miles outside the park.  One day we drove through the park to the other side. We ended up in a small town called Lee Vineing.  Lee Vineing is outside Yosemite but not by much.  It has a lake called Mono Lake that is fascinating.  For millions of years rain and snow melt filled this lake but a bubbling action formed towers of calcium carbonate under the surface.  Then in the 1920's the city of Los Angeles, some 300 miles away, decided to build a aqueduct/pipeline to bring the water to the city.  The lake has 2.5 times the salt of the ocean and is highly acidic.  So rather than take the lake water they took the streams that ran into the lake that had pure rain and snow run off.  The lake had been a major stop off for migrating birds and home to many other unique forms of wildlife.  But over the years the diversion of the water basically dried up the lake.  In the 1960's citizens began an effort to stop the water diversion and restore the lake.  After a major law suite an agreement was reached that LA could take only some of the water and only in normal or wet years.  The lake is nowhere near where it was before the diversion but it is coming back.

When the water level went down it reveled the giant columns of calcium carbonate.  We went down to the water and hiked along an area that used to be under water but now shows these magnificent formations.

Fire in Yosemite

Our first day in Yosemite a wild fire started far from the village.  We were unaware of the fire but as the day progressed the air quality deteriorated.  The valley filled with smoke and most of our pictures were very smokey.  As we drove out of the valley back to our campground we could see where the fire was.  These pictures, like the ones you see on TV, do not show how big the area is or how much smoke is created.

The next day we learned that a plane that was fighting the fire went down and the pilot was killed.  That day there was a sense of sadness throughout the park.