Day Five: Sequoia National Park

Yesterday's campground had California quail. This morning's campground had acorn
woodpeckers. They peck holes in trees and put acorns in them. The telephone pole beside our campsite was riddled with holes.

As I said earlier, Sequoia National Park was just eight miles down the road. In the park, Sequoia trees tend to be clustered in groves. (Pictures) Groves does not mean only sequoia trees lined up in neat rows. Groves means a concentration of Sequoia trees with lots of other evergreens mixed in. In fact, most trees in the groves are the other evergreens.

Despite being hundreds of feet tall, their roots only about 3 feet underground. As long as the root system remains in tact these trees continue growing until they fall over. When they fall over they create an opening in the forest for many new Sequoia trees to grow. It is common to see three or four Sequoias in a row.

Sequoia bark doesn't burn well because it lacks pitch. Since the big Sequoias are so old, they have lived through many fires. Many Sequoia trees have openings in the bark and you can see the insides blackened by past fires. The tree rings of Sequoias can show the history of local forest fires.

In fact, fire has an important role in the spread of Sequoia trees. The trees produce thousands of 3-inch long cones with tiny seeds. These seeds can remain on the tree for 20 years. The cones remain closed until fire opens the cones releasing the seeds. Fire also exposed the forest floor so the seeds could germinate in the soil.

The forest service practice of stopping fires allowed old leaves, limbs and other vegetation to build up on the forest floor preventing the Sequoia seeds from reaching the floor and germinating. So for a while no new Sequoia trees were starting. For the past 25 years, the forestry service has introduced controlled fires to clear away brush and exposing the forest floor to allow new Sequoia trees to grow.

After a day looking at Sequoias, we headed down to Fresno and then north again on highway 41 toward Yosemite National Park.

Day 4: Needles, California to Sequoia National Forest

This morning was glorious. The bushes beside our camper were in bloom. A bevy of four cute California quail were running around the campground scratching for food.










Leaving the campsite we headed west along Interstate 40 through the Mohave Desert (Pictures), past Barstow to Bakersfield. We drove through residential areas with palm trees, slim evergreens and low California style houses. We ate lunch in a small, expensive restaurant on Stockdale Highway called Little Italy. Kathy had cheese manicotti. Chris had Salmon Mediterranean. Both were very good.

We next shopped at Walmart. Had two car keys made. Shopped for some groceries, etc.

After Walmart, we took highway 99 north to Fresno. At Fresno we changed to highway 198 north to the campground near Three Rivers, eight miles from Sequoia National Park.

On the way, we stopped at a roadside fruit and vegetable market. We purchased tomatoes, pears, one yellow sweet potato and bags of dried pears and hot spicy dried mangos.

Painted Desert and Fossil Trees

We spent the first half of today driving through the Painted Desert National Park (Pictures) and the Petrified Forest National Park. (Pictures)

In the late Triassic period, from 225 to 200 million years ago, all the continents were joined together in one giant landmass called Pangea. The land occupied by these parks was approximately were Panama is now. Three rivers flowed through the area, depositing a 1,000 foot thick layer of mineral rich, hence colorful, soil. This formation is called Chinle. Later when the land rose, erosion exposed colorful layers of soil now called the Painted Desert.

Petroglyphs adorn some of the rocks. A dark "desert varnish" covers many rocks in the desert. From 2,000 to 650 years ago, Indians chipped away the desert varnish exposing the lighter rock beneath. The light colored rocks are in the patterns animals, people, and some symbols. One of the most famous collections of petroglyghs is called Newspaper Rock. Hundreds of petroglyps reach at least 20 feet up the rock face and stretch at least 40 feet horizontally. It is an impressive display.

At the bottom of the Chinle Formation are fossilized trees. In the Triassic period, the logs of 200 foot tall trees floated down the three rivers, becamed waterlogged and sank into the river bottoms. Silt covered the logs protecting them from decay. Mineral rich silicon dioxide seeped into the logs replacing plant cellulose with minerals, thus fossilizing them.





After leaving these two parks, we drove West stopping for the night at a very nice campground outside Needles, California.

To Holbrook, Arizona (nearly)

At the Tucumcari KOA camp, last night a family checked in claiming they were going to pitch tents and, instead, moved into one of the campsite's cabins. In the morning there was a confrontation between the campsite owner and the family who claimed they did not sleep in the cabins. We left before the confrontation came to a head.

Most of the day was spent driving to Arizona interrupted by three events.

The first event is that Chris locked the keys in the car at a rest stop. We borrowed a neighbor's cell phone to call 911 who called a wrecking service in the town of Clines Corners. He came in about 20 minutes. He took about 30 minutes getting the door open. The seals at the bottom of the windows were two tight to get his tool in. So he tried using another tool to open our side vents. The challenge with the side vents is that there is a button that needs to be pushed and held down before the latch can be turned. He was out of practice and had trouble remembering how to use the tool. Eventually, he used two tools. One to hold down the button. One tool to turn the latch. This experience cost us $60.

The second event was shopping in a Hispanic grocery store. We tasted the cheeses. We purchased a pound of fajitas in a huge display of meets that included chickens feet among other unique delicacies. Eventually, Kathy and I went through the cafeteria line. Kathy had chili rellenos with refried beans and rice. I had tripe with refried beans and rice. The food was good. Since the seeds had been left in the chilis, the chili rellenos was hotter than Kathy liked, The tripe had good flavor, but very greasy.

In Gallup, we stopped at Richardson's Trading Post. It is a pawn shop where the Indians pawn their turquoise and silver belts, bracklets, etc. The display counters had hundreds and hundreds of genuine silver and turquoise belts, bracelets, rings, huge belt buckles, Hopi Kachina dolls, and Zuni Navaho bear fetishes, etc. that I believe the Indians themselves once wore. This stuff was pawned and had not been recovered by their owners. Through a door leading to the back I could see hundreds more belts waiting to be claimed.

Another part of the store contained stacks of Indian rugs going back to the 1800s, shelves lined with baskets and pottery. These are good, high quality handicrafts. Like the stuff you see in museums. Not the sloppy stuff you see in most souvenir shops. The back of this store was blocked off by some stacks of rugs. Looking passed these rugs to the delights beyond, hanging on the wall are two paintings on hides of battle scenes between the Indians and the cavalry. The hides are very white and the colors very bright. So these paintings are probably new, but they are cool, nonetheless. Someone has posted 23 pictures of the inside of this store, Perry Null Trading Company, and Shush Yaz Trading Company.

Tomorrow morning we visit the Petrified Forest National Park. Photos.

Kansas to New Mexico, all in a day's play -- Monday, October 24, 2011

Another year's vacation sneaks up on us! Although we had told everyone we were going to the Florida Keys this year, our first night out was in Tucumcari, New Mexico!

We had gone places for the weekend for the last month, so it was nice to actually spend a weekend at home. So, we took it easy on Saturday and gradually packed the camper on Sunday. Kathy was loading her clothes after dark!

Got up as usual on Monday morning, packed the food and headed to the library to do a couple of quick things on the way out of town (and borrow some movies!). A few more Great Bend errands and we were on the road, finally, heading toward California. We're entitled to change our minds! Lunch was on the run as we drove along: some of our favorites from Mary's Kitchen Burritos in Great Bend! (Chiles relleno for Kathy and a bistec for Chris). It won't be the last Mexican food we have on this vacation...

Rather an uneventful trip, unless you count changing timezones!

Supper in Dalhart, Texas, at one of the many Mexican restaurants. We really liked the freshly-mad salsa they served. Unfortunately we can't remember the exact name! There at least three Mexican restaurants in Dalhart starting with a "P"; it's one of those we think!

Drove a long stretch of really deserted road from Dalhart to Tucumcari in the dark. Many semis seem to travel that way however; at least that's what we mostly saw!

Bedtime found us a the KOA in Tucumcari.