Size does matter - Sequoia National Forest

It’s been a while since I posted, a lot has been going on!  Anne and I went down to Sequoia National Forest for a vacation / road trip.  I cannot recommend this enough if you have never been.  We drove back up 101 and went through the redwoods too! 

When you are young, maybe size doesn’t matter so much.  Everything is amazing.  New sneakers make you want to run.  You bring spiders into the house to show your mom (that was hilarious Lori)!  A big tree however is still just another part of the world.  We watched little kids being much more fascinated by pine cones, or their gameboys, than “the biggest tree on earth!”  Nevertheless, I’m here to tell you, that as a vaguely adult like person, a big tree has the power to make you believe in something, the power to make you feel like a kid again.

We set off from Seattle on a Friday and sure enough it was cold and grey.  The latest summer arrival since we got out here in 1999.  It wasn’t until we got to Oregon that the sun really showed up.  We stopped in Portland and had lunch on Alberta Street, which I really dig.  The houses and restaurants and shops are all in amongst each other, nary a chain in sight, and the mix of people is great too.  Fish tacos.  Nuff said.

We trekked on and made it to Ashland, though after dark, so we stayed there and wandered in the park by the river in the morning.  I sat and practiced a little dobro and Anne took a walk, then we loaded up on coffee and headed for California. 

Lunch at Terry and Denise’s Wayside Grill in Mount Shasta – I think I’ll be visiting this town any time there is driving instead of flying to CA.  Love the mountain, its cooler despite the baking sun, because you are higher up.  Read the Shasta Angels post to know my other reasons for loving it here.

Then comes the long farm stretch on I5.  Redding, Sacramento, Stockton.  Olives, sunflowers, nectarines, peaches, oranges, plenty of alfalfa.  It is fun, and sunny. Then it is flat and long and hot.  The shape of the hay bales did vary though.  And there were cows, and goats, and llamas to point out.  Still this is where the music selection gets to be the game, we started out with Lindsay Fuller’s CD - yes still no i-pod for me, I’m waiting for the i-phone to be AT&T free before I make the shift.  Oh, and a lot more memory, because I do like uncompressed files too.  You can interrupt your CD music with some great Latino country stations, though the accordion might wear you down.  Also, the 1980’s are now “Oldies” so there was plenty of teen nostalgia music to try too.

Then we took a left after Stockton and took the 120 to 99.  Same – little towns and farms everywhere.  I mean OK there is Modesto.  I’ll take Merced over Modesto or (god forbid) Fresno.  The UC Merced campus is right on Main St, and this has infused the town with some friendly vibe. 

When searching for a place to stop and stay a while, I think the criteria are as follows.  A town you want to visit should have some trees.  They should be alive.  It helps if it is a town with a college.  Look for a main street with a cluster of local stores and restaurants.  There should be an independent paper, even small ones make a difference.  Some sort of natural landmark is good – a mountain, a river, a lake, the worlds biggest potato, something.  Where there are some tourists, there are people who make money selling them stuff, and the “you ain’t from around here” danger drops.  I’m sure I’m forgetting something important?

In Fresno we thought about staying, but it was so bleak and post apocalyptic that we just kept driving.  We would hit Merced on the way back after Sequioa.  I just kept on plowing until Squaw Valley, which had that important thing I was forgetting – a place to sleep when its dark and you are tired, that is close to a place with beer.  In the morning I got up and went and practiced outside until the flies got too aggressive.  Off we went on 180, right into the forest.  $20.00 gets you a week’s pass for both the King’s Canyon and the Sequoia parks.  Feel free to pay more if you have it.  Or just keep going back.  Think about it, if you have a tent, that’s only 80 bucks a month rent?!

Big trees!  It is impossible to describe the feeling in there, the smell of it.  It is like the idyllic healthy land of fairytale forests.  The trees are huge, and they block the sound.  There are almost no loud bass sounds when you are in the trees, so it is just the breeze through leaves, and the animal and bird sounds. The trees are so big that pictures of them seem silly.  Even panning up and down with the movie camera doesn’t do it justice. 

Some of them are more than 250 feet tall, 20 feet in diameter.  The scale does things to your sense of self.  You remember how short life is.  Some of these trees are coming up on their 3500^th birthday.  The older you are in human years, I’m sure the greater the impact.

One of the best things done on this earth, was the establishment of the National Parks.  The Sequoia groves are churches of nature.  The coastal redwoods are a bit murkier, and I actually like the darker more threatening vibe too.  The high Sierras are clean and clear vistas.  The northern California and Southern Oregon coasts are gorgeous.  If you can go, go.  Maybe take the kids when they are a little older.

I feel as though breathing the scent of the incense cedars, the earthy musk of fallen giants, then the sun-warmed plains, then the salt and rock of the Pacific, has changed my life again.  It is as if the air has altered me chemically.  It is a very, very good feeling.