We had planned to cross over the central valley to Sequoia National Park. The night before Ton mentioned the Carrizo Plain National Monument which is famous for its spring wildflowers. So we took a side trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument despite the fact that we did not think there were going to be many flowers due to the drought. California Highway 58 was another great backroad. As we had guessed there were no flowers, we passed a dry lake that showed the extent of the drought.
Next we headed across to Sequoia NP to look at the Giant Sequoia’s. The drive up to the park is very steep with a 5000 foot elevation climb and many turns and switchbacks. The tree’s are impressive and while not as tall as the Redwoods they are thicker and denser. We stopped at the Sherman tree which is supposed to be the biggest tree in the world by volume weighing 2.7 million pounds and is estimated to be 2200 years old.
We are planning to spend tomorrow here also.