Apr 4

Written by: chris
4/4/2016  RssIcon

Great American Road Trips: The National Parks of California   

I am inviting you to come with me on a Great American Road Trip.  And this one is pretty special. I was inspired to plan this trip by the “Visit the USA” website where you will find details on all those great American Road Trips that you always dreamt you would take one day. I am starting on the Pacific Coast, in San Francisco, and driving 5,000 kilometers through the US Southwest, through California, Arizona and New Mexico.  Every great road trip needs a theme, a thread that provides purpose to the trip. My objective on this trip is to visit the iconic National Parks of America’s Southwest in what is a very special year for the National Park Service of the United States.

 


Because this is the U.S. National Park Service 2016 Centennial year: one hundred years of preserving, protecting and opening up some of the greatest natural and historical spaces on the continent. Starting in the Nineteenth Century, the scenic natural wonders of the West, such as the towering mountains and majestic trees of Yosemite and the immense vistas of the Grand Canyon, inspired individual Americans to call for their preservation, asking their government to create something called “national parks.” In 1916, the work of caring for these places was moved to a new agency created by Congress for that specific purpose. The National Park Service was given the responsibility to not only conserve and protect parks, but also to leave them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”


Today there are over 400 national parks and monuments which include not only places of scenic grandeur, but also places that commemorate history too. The National Parks have been described as “America’s Best Idea”. This trip will make that claim come alive in the region where the idea was first realized: America’s West. This Travel Blog covers the California leg of the road trip – you can follow my trip through Arizona and New Mexico in separate blogs linked on this page.

Here in San Francisco is the perfect place to start a road trip showcasing the National Parks, because they are all around me. I have flown into San Francisco International Airport, picked up my rental car and within the hour, I am driving across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, which is itself part of the Golden Gate National recreation Area. The Pacific Ocean is glinting in the sunshine far below and I feel as if I am driving into a movie set. 


A few minutes up the road, not half an hour from the city, is Muir Woods National Monument, a little gem of a park. The Redwood Creek Trail leads me through an awe-inspiring valley of massive Coast Redwoods, the tallest trees in the world.  The land was bought by William Kent to protect these last stands of uncut Redwoods. He named this place after John Muir, the spiritual founder of the National Park Service, whilst he himself introduced legislation that created the National Park Service in 1916.  So, how appropriate that my road trip begins here with the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the ancient trees of Cathedral Grove in Muir Woods. There is a hush on the trail beneath the trees and a stillness in the air. I loop back on the other side of the valley, high on the Hillside Trail and I’m able to almost look some of the 350 feet high trees in the eye. This place almost defines being at one with nature…


Back across the Golden Gate, I have entered the Presidio, the historic origin of San Francisco and my third National Park in one day. The Presidio served for over 200 years as an army post, successively for Spain, Mexico and the US.  Now it is a peaceful oasis in the city with glorious views of parkland, Bay and noble architecture. And this is where I am staying for my first night of the trip: The Inn at the Presidio. It was once the home of the bachelor officers and is an elegant base for visitors to San Francisco.


I’ve driven east from San Francisco towards the snows of the Sierra Nevada. Along the way I stopped to sample some of California’s wines at Vista Ranch and Cellars which have a label connection to the next National Parks on my itinerary. And I took time to stop and smell the roses on the dramatic approach road to the mountains, up the Merced River Valley.


Yosemite National park: it was to this inspirational wilderness that John Muir brought Teddy Roosevelt to convince him of the need to protect such wondrous places. And I’m thinking that John Muir let the landscape itself do the persuading…


I’m in Yosemite at the turn of the season: last week I would have needed tire chains to access the park; this week Spring sunshine fills the valley and meltwater fills the dramatic waterfalls that spring from the immense granite cliffs.


I scurry to all the great valley viewpoints. Tunnel View provides one of the most famous views of Yosemite Valley. From here you can see El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall rising from Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome in the background. Half Dome is perhaps the most recognized symbol of Yosemite. Rising nearly 5,000 feet above the Valley floor, it is one of the most impressive landmarks in Yosemite. And the place is made for hiking: I have made the most of the spring sunshine and hiked Valley Loop Trail, Mirror Lake Trail, Lower Yosemite Fall Trail, Mist Trail and, appropriately, the John Muir Trail to give me an intimate feel for this lovely place.


And now I am recuperating over a sumptuous dinner in the Ahwahnee Lodge Dining Room, as the afterglow of sunset gilds the granite walls through the picture windows under the great log beams…


Heading south down the Sierra Nevada now to two more mountainous National Parks that are even higher in altitude than Yosemite: Kings Canyon and Sequoia.  Again, it is a dramatic approach up hairpin bends under the granite knob of More Rock. I am staying at the Alpine Wuksachi Lodge at over 7,000 feet and there is deep snow everywhere. These two National Parks adjoin each other and both deserve to better known. Kings Canyon hides a cleft in the earth that is deeper than the Grand Canyon and in the March snows I am only able to peer down into its depths from a viewpoint on the Generals Highway that has only opened from under winter snows this very day.


Today I have hiked frozen trails, snowshoed in the forest, gazed on contiguous USA’s highest peak, Mount Whitney and watched a spectacular sunset from atop Beetle Rock. But the highlight unquestionably was spending time in the Giant Forest. Here are groves of Giant Sequoia trees that gently remind me of my place on this planet. For they are huge and have been here forever. General Sherman Tree is the largest living organism on the planet. As I stand beneath its immensity – 275 feet high, 103 feet circumference and 1,385 tons in weight – I reflect that this great tree began its life 2,500 years before mine and will outlive me for sure…


My final National Park on this Californian leg of my road trip is the ominously named Death Valley National Park. To get there from here is quite a journey and one that begins at first light at the Lodge scraping the ice off my windscreen and ends later in the day at the aptly named Furnace Creek in Death Valley, where the temperature hovered around 100F. From snows to desert sands. From 7,000 feet up, to nearly 300 feet below sea-level – this is a unique part of my road trip.


This is a park of extremes. Death Valley is the driest, hottest and lowest spot in America. I enter via Rainbow Canyon where Airforce fighters are playing Star Wars games deep in its depths and spend time at some of the highlights in the baking heat. Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes is a desolate region of blown sand. The Badwater Basin is the lowest point on the continent, full of dry saline flats and mirages of lakes that evaporate as you approach. Artist Drive is a narrow twisting road that showcases the bright colours of an artist’s palette on the sides of the canyon walls. The view of the badlands at Zabriskie Point is so famous it has inspired a film title of the same name. And the sunset from the summit of Dantes View at 5,500 feet was phenomenal, encompassing 6,000 vertical feet and the Basin and Range topography of Death Valley.


It is the serendipity of events on road trips that cannot be planned which often remain the most memorable moments- and so it will be in Death Valley. For I have been lucky enough to be here at something that happens for just a few weeks every ten to twelve year: a “Super Bloom”, where the normally desolate Death Valley desert is covered with wild flowers coaxed out of decades-long hibernation by the right combination of weather conditions. Yellows punctuated by whites and purple, like a mirage… Quite beautiful.


I started my Great American Road Trip of National Parks in California with the glinting immensity of the Pacific Ocean on the Golden Gate Bridge and I end it with a world-ending sunset in Death Valley. Come with me on the next part of my trip as I drive southeastwards to Arizona’s National Parks of Petrified Forest and – of course – the Grand Canyon.        


Accommodations

I would recommend the accommodations I experienced on this trip:

The Inn at Presidio 42 Moraga Ave, San Francisco, CA 94129  (415) 800-7356

Yosemite View Lodge, 11156 Hwy 140, El Portal, CA 95318 (209) 379-2681

Wuksachi Lodge, Wuksachi Way, Sequoia National Park, CA, Tel (866) 807-3598


Thanks

Many helpful hands facilitated my journey, especially the dedicated team of the National Park Service: Scott & Eugenne in Yosemite; Colin & Matthew in Sequoia/Kings Canyon; and Dianne in Death Valley all graciously provided interviews for the Travel Show. You can listen to them as podcasts here: www.chrisrobinsontravelshow.ca/RadioShows/ChrisInterviews.aspx

I would also like to thank Ally at VisitCalifornia as well as Sana, Patrice and Marissa in the Canadian Office of Brand USA.  To find out more about road trips all over the US, seek out the www.VisitTheUSA.com website, go the Explore tab and click on Road Trips for a whole range of suggested road trips, from the Oregon Trail to the Blues Highway to Route 66.  


Here I am ready for my road trip with my rental car and, very importantly, the right luggage - thanks to the advice from Bentley luggage store. They suggested this light weight Swiss Gear 28” case, which seems to hold all I need for 2 weeks intensive travel, plus the handy Parkland duffel bag.

www.shopbentley.com/en/swiss-gear-21-5-dom-hardside-luggage-1009061002.html

www.shopbentley.com/en/shop-parkland/parkland-view-duffle-black.html

 

Copyright ©2016 Chris Robinson

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