Friday 10th March – Kings Canyon

We awoke in our winter wonderland.  Generator use wasn’t allowed until 9am so we dealt with this by staying in bed until then!

The snow on the camp ground was quite deep....

View over the Redwood grove

Seeing the view was not without risk!  A snow casualty...

Instead of just heading straight to Yosemite, we drove towards Sequioa, despite signs warning that the road was only open for the next 8 miles.  This was to reach an outlook over one of the largest groves of the largest trees in the world (above). Redwood grove contains more than 2100 giant sequoias larger than 10 feet in diameter.  It was well worth the extra journey and we got to say that we had ventured into Sequoia despite the snowy conditions..… just.

The Satnav estimated a three-hour drive to Yosemite.  Once we were back in the land of phone signal I thought I’d better check the accessibility following the winter closures in Sequoia.  Lucky I did!  Route 41 from the South into Yosemite was closed to repair winter storm damage so, just like for Sequoia, we would have to detour round to another entrance and try our luck there.

For lunch, we did something out of the ordinary and went for fast food.  Simon and I have been quite proud that we have only partaken of the M-word once in the last 5 months. (That was at the Smithsonian as McDonalds was the ONLY option available) We have waited until we have company to sample some of the chains that aren’t available back in the UK.  Today we stopped off at a ‘Jack in the Box’ and ordered a mixture off their menu.  We were all pleased with our purchases, from Simon’s buttery bacon cheeseburgers to my peppery chicken ranch number.  And Becky treated us, extra bonus!  

It had been a late lunch so by the time we were approaching Yosemite on our longer route it was heading for 4pm.  Having researched ahead there appeared to be few camping options within the park itself for RVs of our dimensions.  The decision was made to pull stumps early for the day when we spotted ‘Indian flat RV Park’ nestled between mountains and a fast-flowing river.  Plus, it would only be a short drive to Yosemite in the morning.  We paid for our spot for the night, $49, and asked the owner about any white-water rafting on the river.  Sadly, we are too early yet again as there is no rafting on the river until April!  We are not doing very well at catering for Becky’s holiday wish-list.  She also was hoping to do horseback riding but that doesn’t appear to start in the area until May.  Spring does not start earlier enough for our time frame.  We went for a walk on the river before setting up the BBQ again for some pork chops that no one was vaguely hungry for but needed cooking.  

The view from our camp site at Indian flats RV park... and our neighbour's bus

Si getting the dinner on

Then it was party time at Cedar Grove Bar. Well, we couldn’t miss an opportunity to have a night out at a bar when neither of us had to drive and it was right next to the campsite!  We agreed that if it was dead in there we would just stay for one and head home but our hopes were raised by the pool table and Jukebox.  Having selected a list of tunes (several groups left the bar after our songs came on - Coincidence?!) Becky and I ordered a cocktail and we obtained enough change for three pool games so we could each have two games.

Well, Becky and I had the first game and it was epic.  Not due to the skill involved.  Epic in the amount of time it took for me to finally win.  We had drawn the attention of a heavily bearded man (not Simon) who was in the bar alone and seemed sympathetic to Simon waiting to get his turn on the pool table.  Turns out this guy, Alex, was a Texan Entomologist visiting Yosemite for the weekend, having given his wife and three kids some space (or should that be the other way around?!).  Somehow, the suggestion of a boys versus girls doubles match was successful and Alex joined our gang for the evening.  Sadly, this involved him buying us rounds of tequilas to show his appreciation.  Needless to say, he and Simon won the game so we then changed things up so that Alex and Becky played against us.  I’m happy to say the Newdeys won through but none of us needed that other tequila to celebrate.  We went to part ways but embarrassingly my credit card was declined at the bar and a chunk of our cash had been fed to the jukebox, leaving insufficient funds to pay the whole bill.  Alex, rather inebriated by now, took no time in offering to pay our bill and I had to almost force him to take a $50 bill to cover the majority of our drinks tab!  It was definitely time to leave but I don’t recall the walk back to the RV in much detail.  I definitely remember the room was spinning when I lay down in bed though…..