Day 8 - Central California and Giant Sequoia National Monument
2008 Summer Road trip to Northwest USA and Canada
Trip duration: 15 days (May 9th to 23rd)
Total distance: 9000km/5560miles
Sometimes, it is nice being single. You could do stupid and crazy things and there would be no one to piss off except yourself.
In my case, I indulged myself in the glorious sunset in Death Valley the night before, and, with San Francisco as my destination for this evening, I decided to sleep in the car. I mean, what's the point of paying $80 for some hotel/motel room when I only have 6 hours to sleep?
The joy of traveling solo when you're still young :D
When I look back, this was one of the craziest days in my life, I woke up well before dawn and didn't even get to San Francisco until after mid night. This blog entry covers the first half of the day.
First, the sunrise, the start to what was going to be a perfect day.
After sleeping in the car for a warm and humid 6 hours or so, I proceeded west and passed by the gorgeous Lake Isabella. I was liking this area already, such gorgeous and skin friendly weather, and very friendly people (had a nice chat with the owner of a gas station, he even gave me a map of the surrounding area in the form of a plastic bag)
And yes, those are BUGS you see dotting the picture
What a sunrise that was. Tired I might have been, but the rush of the morning sun and the smell of the lake recharged me instantly.
I felt like hot batteries off the charger, ready to go Vroom Vrooming and snap more pics :D
... and then, here it was, the second surprise of the perfect day. West from Lake Isabella is one of the most pants-wettingly twisty roads out there. In fact, a sign at the bottom of the mountain pass said "no big trucks, very steep mountain road ahead". And at the sight of that road sign, both the MINI Cooper and I rejoiced: Awesome, let's GO!
Yes, the MINI might be cute
but it also one of the best handling cars in the world and it's very growly :D
Vroom vroom!
... out the other side of the mountain pass...
The road did not disappoint, no traffic in the morning, just crisp cool air, pristine tarmac, and an oversized go-cart to play with.
Joy of joys, I could smell the tires when I got off the car to take this picture :D
And then I entered the valley of central California. For a California virgin, this was my first thought:
"Woah, funny California trees!"
Hehe, these trees are so cute, like toothpicks with a turf of hair on the top xD
I bet the locals were wondering why I was photographing such a boring looking street (btw, the locals were almost entirely hispanic, an ethic group not commonly seen anywhere in Canada in large numbers)
So from the town of Portsville I drove east past Lake Success and Springville, headed for Camp Nelson.
After an hour or so on the mouth wateringly awesome twisties (where even the cops pulled over to let me pass, hah!) I reached the Giant Sequoias.
Towering 220-270 feet tall, these trees had been standing here for thousands of years, literally...
They are also the biggest living thing on earth (by volumn), while I'm obviously not
My brother said this picture is very gay (homophobic much?) but I wanted to show the true scale of the size of these trees (although, one could argue, putting a small guy beside a tree like that doesn't show its true scale!)
One of the trees lying on the forest floor.
A day for these trees must seem like a mere second to us.
For some reason...
... they remind me of hair growing out of arm pits
And here's a friend I made in the forest, for half an hour this little guy crawled all over my left fist and licked me (a very pleasent tickling sensation)
I'm so sweet (and holy crap, my thumb's WRINKLY!)
Actually I think it was the sweetened iced tea I was drinking which attracted the little bee. I had to walk back to the car slowly and grab my macro lens for these pictures :D It actually flew away as I walked back to the car, but came back after awhile for more pictures :D
... Living ON the tree
... and living IN the tree. These trees aren't merely organisms of their own, but huge worlds for many others. To them, this might as well be earth, and other trees might be other planets.
Oh, sorry to the girls who get grossed out by insects.
But then again, this apology isn't very well placed for those who are afraid of insects, because they would've closed their browser window by now, right?
And a little poem for the giant trees, who will undoubtly live on well after we're all dead.
Those dried barks of your skin
And giant heavy limbs
Many stormy nights you must've seen
Watching the sun glow and dim
Our civilization to you is but a night's dream
Our lives fade faster than smoke and steam
Here you stand the test of time as the earth spins
and I shall leave no marks...
On those dried barks of your skin
I'll end this entry with one of the fondest memories of this summer, driving on these unending twisties of the Sequoia forests.
Go back to previous road trip entries....Day 1: Montana
Day 2: West Yellowstone
Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 1
Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 2
Day 4: Yellowstone/Salt Lake City
Day 5: Salt Lake City
Day 5: Arches National Park
Day 5: Canyonlands National Park
Day 6: Capitol Reefs National Park
Day 6: Bryce Canyon National Park
Day 7: Cedar Breaks National Monument / Zion National Park
Day 7: Nevada desert and Death Valley
Day 8: Central California and Giant Sequoia National Monument
Day 8: Monterey California sunset
Day 9: San Francisco Sunrise panoramas and wallpaper
Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 1 of 2
Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 2 of 2
Day 10: Alcatraz, San Francisco
Day 11: California Coastal Redwoods
Day 11: Northern California Coasts
Day 12: Oregon and Washington
Day 12: Wayne's house
Day 13: Pike Place Market, Seattle
Day 13: Vancouver sunset and night shots
Day 14: Interior BC and Squilax Hostel
Day 15: Suqilax Hostel and Alberta
Comments (26)
Wonderful, WONDERFUL pictures! I am so jealous!
You are really smart to have gone to the trip(s). Many patients told me to do what I like when I am still young and capable, don't wait.
Needless to say these pictures are beautiful. What I want to say is my sincere thanks for all the effort you have put to share them with us.
Yes, a very beautiful sunrise; lovely bee (so different looking from those I saw here) and it didn't bite? your thumb can cheat; the giant trees are cute (how small we are). Everything's beautiful and it makes me thinking going on a trip too ..... :)
man you're reving high..... if I rev that high in anything more than 2nd gear... I fly out of curves lol... damn you low reving 280hp D=
@visualfusion - shh stop bragging :P You need more grip, hehe.
That road was so twisty I almost never got out of 2nd gear. 60mph is 2nd gear at redline btw.
Absolutely awesom photos Luca. I love the photo of you going around the tree linking to your own hands and I love the bee photos too. I so envy that macro lens that you have
@XtremePsionic - I have no idea what my speed is at redline ... great excuse to test it out
@visualfusion - hahah, drive harder :D I know what the redline is for all the gears in both my cars, I live there xD A g-meter is fun to have too, tells you how quick you're actually going round the bends!
@visualfusion - gotta say tho, the G35 is an awesome machine, the coupe has one of the best sounding stock exhausts out there, almost italian like.
@MlleRobillard - Thankyou :) I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. Such fond memories, I'm going to have to make a lil photo album and put it on the coffee table :D
@littlelamblittlelamb - You're smart too :D I've always heard the same things from older people, do it when you're young, blah blah blah. So I listened and did it. I really admire those kids here in Canada who go travel solo to Asia, they're so much crazier than I am :D
@akashapeace1 - That macro lens is fun, it allows you to look at the world a bit differently. But at the same time, it is downright annoying to use it efficiently, as you need to have fairly high shutter speed or tripod to get any sort of decent images.
My right arm was a little sore after those bee pictures, imagine stretching your left arm out while trying to take macro shots of it with your right arm for half an hour, hah.
hehe watching your car driving movie, made me laugh! so funny! I've seen 3 colors of minis here in my town lately. reminds me of you cuz i never knew anyone who had one before. my old neighbor used to love Bugs.
and the bee! it's such a neat picture!
and, you drive fast i see.^^
You let a bee on your hand >____>;
x_x what if it had stung you?
Cool pics though, so ..macro o.o xD
"The King" looked at these with me and we were "Whoa" ing the bee shots. And laughing hard at the wrinkly thumb. Incredible tree shots. Thanks for the "mini" vacation my friend. Recommending!
@memail_dot_com - hehe vroom vroom goes the Mini man :D
@azn_x_strike - I was willing to risk it for pictures!!
@Jaynebug - aww thanks, glad you liked them. Fun trip wasn't it? I can't believe I'm still editing pictures 4 months afterwards...
Your camera is magical
Sometimes it's nice being single, but I bet it would've been more fun to share it with someone at the moment. Who says nobody else would agree to sleeping in the car with you?
You have a brother!?
That's pretty brave of you to let a bee crawl all over you.
I just spent the last 4 days hiking/camping/climbing in the forests of New Hampshire, and there definitely is something about being in wilderness that makes you feel so at peace. You don't need to follow any social etiquette or worry about other people judging you or about anything really. Still, I don't like being isolated in the wilderness for too long; it makes me feel like I don't really exist anymore. I need to feel like I matter =P
I came on the recommendation of Jaynebug -- love this post -- I'll be back later to look at the rest!
@jzrocker - Hehe, you do matter :) We don't need to worry about so much if we matter or not really... I don't think we could help it either way.
I dunno, I just thought those couple days of the trip were crazy, I saw the sunset in Death valley, then sunrise in Cali, then sunset in Monterey, then sunrise again at San Fran. If there's someone with me they'd probably beg for mercy and a nice warm bed xD
omg you had a bee on you, crazy! what camera do you have, I love all of your pictures, your very talented :)
@aliceandrandy - hehehe cute wasn't it? I was okay with it as long as it didn't crawl near any bodily openings xD
I use a Canon 40D with a bunch of different lenses. Thanks for the kind comment, you made my day :) Do you photograph too?
@XtremePsionic - My bf has a D60 and we go around and take pictures once in awhile but we need more lenses! I wish they weren't so expensive :P
@aliceandrandy - arg I know... SLRs are such incredible money pits. Sure is fun tho, especially when you have someone you love to go on trips with and take pictures of!
@XtremePsionic - hehe don't worry, you'll find s.o (: She will be so lucky because you guys can take pictures together with your nice camera :P
@aliceandrandy - hehe I did find someone (on xanga of all places!) it's an ultra long distance relationship tho, she's in Australia. I'm going there for a month to see her in December, and she's coming here as an exchange student next year :D
@XtremePsionic - awwww :) wow a month :P That's really long. I always wanted to go to Australia! enjoy your Christmas with her....oh wait it's Summer over there at that time isn't it? haha.
@aliceandrandy - yep it sure is summer, I can't complain, getting away from the deep freeze here in Canada for a hot Australian summer with my gf is like... heaven :D
Have you traveled much?
@XtremePsionic - Yeah I have traveled around. My parents like to travel so we go on summer vacation trips once a year. I just came back from the East coast this summer. I went to New york, Cananda, Washington DC, Boston, ECT. It was the whole package! I love to travel & explore new places! (: I've been chatting with your for awhile now haha. I have to get started with homework :(