Eventually leaving the campsite in Oakhurst a bit later than usual (nearer ten today), and with Char at the wheel on the straightforward route, we arrived at the campsite near Sequoia National Park for lunch. On the way we passed Kaweaha lake, which was so low that grass was established on some areas that should have been underwater. Ironically, it did spend much of the day trying to rain. It eventually succeeded quite well a few hours later...
After a quick lunch, we headed up once more into the Sierra Nevada, quickly entering the park, but not so quickly ascending, due to the numerous hairpin bends. The view across the valley and of the chaparral scrub were beautiful.
There was an abrupt change from the scrub into the sequoia and pine forest, and this also meant we entered the roadworks area, with associated potholes, loose gravel and delays for traffic control to areas being worked on.
Nevertheless, this meant a slow perambulation through the sequoia forest, with many large trees being spotted just from the car - Rhinefield Ornamental drive in the New Forest on steroids!
We parked and walked downhill to view General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. Now, we're not sure whether we have been spoilt by the enormous New Zealand Kauri trees, or whether the information boards along Rhinefield were inaccurate, but there was a general (hah!) feeling of underwhelming when we finally saw him. Nevertheless, he was indeed enormous, and the walk through the forest that we did afterwards was amazing. Unfortunately, whilst we were gawping at tree after enormous tree, the heavens finally opened properly (actual rain), and we sheltered under a fallen sequoia until it seemingly lessened in intensity. This was an illusion, and we were soon drenched - however, at the moment when the rain was falling at its most sustained level, we encountered a walker who said that there was a bear up ahead and quite near the path. We edged around the bend and there it was - not at all bothered by the walkers scattering in all directions, it ambled across the paths, then about turned and came back towards us, prompting slightly hurried walking further down the path away from it - an amazing experience, and hopefully not the only bear to be seen on the trip.
We continued the rest of the Congress Trail (The Senate, The President, The House etc etc), with the sun now starting to shine and no further signs of bears. The drive back down was uneventful, as the roadworks had finished for the day, but the sun was now lighting up the mountains beautifully as we headed back to the campsite.
Tomorrow will be a slightly more dull affair as we begin our journey to Vegas, although we do appear to be passing through the Mojave Desert at some point along the way.
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