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Hogarth Adventures!
After a somewhat sleepless night in Visalia and a morning spent dealing with admin relating to the flat, we were on the road at the somewhat late time of 1pm. We had a long day ahead of us heading north towards the Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon our ultimate destination. Driving in the US takes some getting used to mainly driving on the wrong side of the road and its just so bl##dy big. Looking at the map we didnt think we had to far to go before we would be in amongst the good stuff so to speak but that wasnt the case. As the miles stretched out we realised we were in for another long driving day after stopping off at the local lake which is about as big as solihull we eventually reached the entrance to the park. After paying your man it was onwards and upwards for ages the heat rising all the time and the roads becoming narrower and narrower. The scenic views were breathtaking and its very dfficult not to stop at each one and take picture we would still be there if we had done that. As you climb higher you reach the level of the sequoia trees which are just immense. After reading about the worlds biggest tree in the trusty guidebook we made a beeline for it. Being american this tree is supersized and is the biggest by volume. It didnt disappoint. We joined the other tourists and made our way around it, laughing on route as we heard an american lady complain after walking JUST 3 minutes DOWN hill about the fact that the car park was so far from the tree....at this point we had also seen many signs telling tourists that there were 'seats for them to rest on' to help cope with the walk.....which on route back up we bumped into her again to hear her complain that one seat had been put in the sun so 'why would she sit there geeze...' All added to the USA tourist experience though! Back in the cruise mobile we found a shortcut towards Kings Canyon and ventured into the unknown passing Hume lake another supersize chunk of water. Eventually at around 4pm we reached the road we had been searching for and started the ascent and descent to this big gap. We werent disappointed for us both this was a true highlite of our whole world tour the journey to the end of the canyon. The scenery, drops, views, scary corners, noise or lack of it and just the sheer scale was awesome. Everywhere we turned there was another jaw dropping sight be it a 5000ft drop to the valley floor or a waterfall carreering down the cliff side it was a photographers paradise. And it just kept on going when we did reach the valley floor the noise of the river just echoed around us and we strained our necks to look up to glimpse the tops of the canyon. When we did reach the end of this one way road disappointment hit our faces we both could have kept going so magical was the experience. Even though we knew we had to retrace our steps all the way back out of the park. Stopping at more viewpoints on the way the canyons colours had begun change as the sunset it was beautiful. After winding our way up out of the canyon it was out of the park and head north again to our room for the night a place called Yosemite Bug in a place called Midpines which turned out to be a long way away. It was a long old drive and we saw parts of the US that I dont want to see again. After chomping our way through a delicious burger (from a place called In-Out Burger that famously does what it says, a hamburger or cheeseburger and thats it!) with all the trimmings it was back on the road, we finally found our lodgings after many false turns and deadends at midnite absolutely exhausted. Sadly this was one of the nicest places we had stayed in with many random mad colourful trimmings in our wooden 'bug' hut but we were only there for 10hours before we were headed toYosemite National Park, but thats another story of amazing wonder to come.......
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