Stars and Stripes, USA: The Beautiful National Parks

Spending a couple of hours on the road we were on our way to Sacramento, home of the Kings in (NBA), Team Alpha Male with Urijah Faber and of course our good friend Manny Ray Gonzales. Leaving San Fran we drove over the magnificent Golden Gate bridge and 2-3 hours later we arrived in Sacramento and headed straight to Manny's new gym on Truxel road, Ralph Gracie Sacramento. Manny opened up the new gym with his business partner and good friend Nathan (Nate) Dueñas in early May and we had the pleasure of staying with them and Nate's dog Zeus a beautiful German Shepherd.

Manny and Nate's new gym is awesome and doing really well. For something that has only been up and running for just over a month they already have over 40 students and continuing to grow. The mats and the set up was top quality and of course you (as a student) get a great coach in Manny completely dedicated to the teaching of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Other than training Maddie and I just hung out and caught up on sleep. Other than training Maddie and I just hung out and caught up on sleep. One of the more traditional parts of Sacramento was Old Sac. One of the first areas of Sacramento and still contains some of the original buildings, shops and streets that started this city. A cool little place to visit and see some of California’s culture including the Pony Express. The express started in 1860 and was a mail route for riders through a 1966 mile journey across the USA to deliver mail.

Pony Express

Old Sac

Train Lines

Manny has this really lovely family coming to the gym. Father, son and father in-law and we were very kindly invited for dinner and drinks at the family's home. It was such a fun night and perfect timing as Maddie was feeling very home sick whilst we were in Sac. We played charades and talked about our home vs their home and culture vs Philippeno culture. We were thoroughly entertained by the whole family, they were so welcoming and made us feel like part of the family. We were even privy to a magic show by one family member who, might I add, is extremely clever.

Manny took us and introduced us to all the great American food available, Buffalo Wild Wings being one. We really enjoyed our stay with Manny and Nate but the mountains and forest were calling. Saying our goodbyes we hit the road bound for Yosemite National Park. After all the debacle of finding accommodation on the coast we decided to book for the national parks. That was a very good idea as most things were fully booked for months in advance. So we drove to Yosemite Lakes RV Park. This was an ok location and only about 40 min drive in to the National Park. Driving in to the park every day was absolutely breathtaking. As you come around the sweeping bends you are presented with a new valley to admire or mountain range stretched across the horizon including amazing views of Half Dome. Every turn brought something new to look at. As we approached the valley we were surrounded on each side by huge cliffs, we decided to take it easy on the first day as we knew we were up for a big 2nd day. So we ventured to mirror lake which was a very easy stroll up a road following a river to a lake which looked more like a meadow. California is in one of the worst droughts they've see. So Mirror lake was fairly dry but there was plenty to see. We found a lovely shady spot by the meadow and ate our lunch whilst watching all the wildlife.

Touching Haf Dome,

View from the Road into Yosemite

Half Dome from Mirror Lake

We had decided previous to arriving in Yosemite that we were going to hike Yosemite Falls. This is one of the oldest trails in the park and climbs to a dizzying 2700ft. It is only 6.4 miles/10km round trip but... from the get go you are climbing from switch back to switch back. It took us just over 6.5hours with about an hour at the top. We starting walking at about 8:30am when it was at least a little cooler. Now I'm not going to lie the hike was tough and at times Maddie and I struggled with some parts of the climb but we made it and it was so worth it. The view from the top was just spectacular. We met some really lovely people along the way and we saw some pretty cool things, like a Sierra Mountain Kingsnake, lizards and plenty of funny looking squirrels. The falls themselves were just trickling compared to its usual gushing flow but the cool spray from the falls was a welcome relief. We had lunch at the top and took advantage of the cool water dipping our feet in to cool down. This is definitely a highlight of our trip. We made it back to the campground and crashed out for the afternoon.

Yosemite Falls

A Nice place to stop for lunch

Looking out at the view, and boy it was amazing

Sierra Mountain Kingsnake

The last part of the Hike. Sweating it out big time

View from the top

The next day we packed everything up and began our journey to the Sequoia National Park, home to the largest tree in the world. A quick pitt stop in Fresno to refuel and restock we arrived at our campground, Upper Stony Creek. Just inside the National Park this lovely little campground offered the bare essentials but was probably the best time we've had since being on the road. When we arrived we went off for a walk along the creek and through the surrounding forrest. We collected some fire wood for the evening and settled in for the night by the fire. Now this is black bear country, people warned us to be very careful when storing food making sure to always use bear boxes and never leave food in your car. This worried us a little and no matter how much knowledge you have about bears I feel like you're never really prepared if you come across one. The whole time we were in the parks we saw one bear and he was just minding his own business. They are very quiet animals and stick to themselves mostly but they become quite inquisitive when humans don't store food properly or dump rubbish in the wrong place. But we always locked our car doors at night just in case a bear decided to climb in for a cuddle.

We spent our first full day just hanging around the campground. We went rock hoping up the river and just lazed about enjoying the peace and quiet. We were playing a quick game of canasta when a couple from another campsite came over offering us a trout that they had caught that morning. It had even been gutted and scaled definitely in the right place at the right time. We were so grateful.

hat was dinner sorted and a yummy dinner it was. We had a lovely Mexican family arrive and park next to our site. We chatted to them constantly. Again so very generous, the grandfather gave us a battery lamp, its the small things but that lamp became a life saver when we had to go the the toilet at 3am.

Moby and the Campsite

The next day we ventured in to the sequoia forest, we wanted to drive up to Morro Rock but being a Sunday the road was closed to prevent congestion on the road. So we parked and jumped on a shuttle bus which took us up to Crescent Meadow. This is a luscious green sanctuary nestled amongst the giant sequoias home to many different animals and bugs. A narrow path takes you beside the meadow toward Tharp’s Log. The trail takes many different routes depending on how long you want to walk for and which direction you want to go. We made the loop around going past the Chimney tree to Tharp’s log cabin. This is a sequoia hollowed out and turned in to a cabin.The log is named after Hale Tharp, who was described as the first Non-Native American to enter the Giant Forest and was built in 1861. He used it in the summer time to bring his cattle to graze the meadow. We were however disappointed to see the vandalism to the log and other structures around the area. Why people feel the need to engrave their name and day they were here at this particular spot and ruin something so amazing, really gives us the shits. Human destruction at it finest is some of these parts of the forest.

Tunnel Log

Tharps Log

Crescent Meadow

Chimney Tree

We made our way from Tharp’s Log past Crescent Meadow again and followed a trail down to Moro Rock. This is a 300ft (100m) vertical hike up some steep stairs for approximately 400m. Once we reached the top we were standing 6,725 feet or 2040 meters above sea level overlooking the saw tooth mountain ranges of the Sequoia National Park. What an amazing view, breathtaking, literally after walking up all the stairs. We were even able to see that some snow was still on the capped mountains in the distance. Considering the heat where we were standing, it was amazing to still see snow in the distance. Trudging back down the stairs we made another short hike through the forest to Tunnel Log. Unfortunately due to it being the weekend the road was closed and we were unable to drive underneath the large Sequoia that had fallen over the road and then tunnelled out so cars were able to continue on the road. Once again another lovely giant tree was ruined by graffiti, not so happy faces when seeing this. Due to some controlled burning some of the hiking paths were blocked so we made our way back towards Moro Rock to continue on the path to the museum. Apparently the Giant Sequoia’s are from a similar family to the Gum tree and to reproduce the pods needs extreme heat to burst open and spread their seeds. Also controlled burning is able to maintain the level of forest growth on the floor bed so that if a fire does occur it is not overgrown, enhancing the fuel for the fire. Along the path back to the museum we noticed another short ascending trail heading up towards Hanging Rock. Making our way up the path to the edge of a cliff was a rock, just hanging there. It looked as though if you gave it a good hard push it would fall over the edge. The rock provided some shade on the edge of the cliff so we stopped here for a bite to eat before continuing along the path towards the museum. We had nearly reached the trail when off to our right, Andy noticed a bear in a small meadow. On the way up the trail on the bus we were informed the bears name was Booboo and there he was. Just lazing about on a log, not to bothered by us passing by. Although a black bear, his coat glowed brown in the sunlight. We continued onto the museum and once there took in some information regarding this amazing national park and the history of the forest itself.

Moro Rock

Hanging Rock

Top of Moro Rock

We took Moby back to the campsite set up dinner, gathered firewood, started the fire and gazed up at the stars before heading to bed. You get a real sense of coming together with nature when you are out in places such as these. After being in big cities and not seeing the stars for a few weeks, the sounds, smells and sights of nature made us appreciate more than words can explain how amazing the world we live in is. We set up the tripod to take some photo’s of the night sky and wow. What the camera could capture was spectacular. More stars than the eye can see and hazes and streaks of what may be other galaxies and planets. Makes you wonder, if there are other forms of life out there? We even had some night time visitors of a couple of deer looking for scraps.

Looking up at the stars

The fire provided an orange glimmer on the trees

Waking to the sounds of nature, the running creek, bluejays and squirrels calling is once again an amazing feeling. Makes you feel at one with nature. Today we were off to see the largest tree on the planet. Yes that’s right the, largest tree currently known to man, The General Sherman Tree.

Although the tree is only 83 meters high and it may not be the tallest tree in the world, it makes up for it in girth. Due to it's perimeter of the trunk being 31 meters (11 meter diameter), which results in an estimated volume of 1486.6 cubic meters and is believed to be approximately 2000 years old. In 2006 the largest branch of the tree fell, it was 2 meters in diameter and 30 meters long. What the....

General Sherman Tree

We started in the parking lot above the tree, which is the exact height of the tree before walking down the path closer to the trunk of the enormous beast. Standing in front of this amazing piece of nature was jaw dropping. We often have to keep pinching ourselves knowing that we are in these places and not looking at them in a magazine or a poster on a wall. Past the tree we walked on both a paved and natural path taking us around The Congress Trail consisting of other giant sequoia trees that surround the area close to the General Sherman. Some of the trees on this path included, The President Tree, The Senate (a group of trees which all sprouted at the same time), and The House just to name a few. We saw plenty of animals including a Woodpecker, many different types of Squirrels, birds and a Marmot, which we had no idea what it was until we googled it, weird looking creature.

The Senate, Look how tiny we are, can't even fit in the whole tree

Woodpecker

Admiring these huge trees was just incredible. The size of their bark is around 1 meter thick, their trunks around 7-10meters in diameter and so high nearly, 100m tall. Often couldn’t fit the whole tree in the camera and if we did, standing beside it we look like ants.

Starting up Moby, we set out on a windy 30-40 minute drive to Crystal Caves. The caves were discovered in the early 1900’s and by the mid 1900’s were seeing tourists flocking to see another amazing piece of nature. We arrived, way way to early and sat in the van for nearly 2-3 hours before our tour was starting. Boy was that a bad idea. Although higher up in the mountains the heat was still intense and being inside a hot car was not our idea of fun. Once the tour time had arrived we headed down the trail for a 45 minute tour of the caves. Over time the rocks had been carved out by the water and with the different types of rock formed tunnels through the mountains which allowed us access to see the wonderful caves. During the mid 1900’s around the 1930’s I think, an exploration group used dynamite to expand the tunnels and allow visitors to access more of the caves. This placed a grey coloured dust over some of the ares of the caves and over time water had washed some of the dust away but not all of it. There were many Stalagmites and Stalactites coming from above and below and some connecting to form Columns. We made our way through the caves and at one stop our guide turned off all the lights to give us the feeling of what it would be like to be a cave dwelling animal. She has stated that many animals including the bats have evolved to the pitch black darkness and many are blind. The rely on sound waves, smell and touch to guide themselves around the caves. Pretty incredible when you think about how humans rely a lot on sight to be able to do things. Passing through more of the cave water continued to trickle down streams and the cool breeze and temperature (of around 50 fahrenheit or between 10-15 celsius) provided some relief from the hot outside. We left the cave making the 15minute hike back to Moby in the carpark and headed back to camp for our last night. Once again we started up the fire, prepared dinner and enjoyed the wonders of nature before heading back to the Los Angeles and the rate race once more.