Home » United States » California and Yosemite

I vacation in California for the first time in 1994 with a friend. Heading north from San Francisco on our way to our first destination, I am immediately struck by how arid the climate is in that part of the country. The vegetation looks very yellow and parched, making me more clearly understand the massive incompatibility between the human population in California and the water needed to support that population.

California and Yosemite

Domz
2004-04-06 19:43:28

Displayed times (last time: )

Muir Woods

Our first mistake is thinking that we would enjoy the scenic Route 1 along the California coast north of San Francisco. We stop briefly at the Muir woods, which gives us our first, breath-taking glimpse of the awesome redwoods, and the startlingly quiet conditions one finds in a redwood grove (even with all the Winnebegos and tourists!). The mistake is that we have no idea how curvaceous Rt. 1 becomes in this part of the state. We are averaging about 20 miles per hour along hair-pin turns and steep coastal cliffs. At this rate, we will reach our first destination (Sinkyone Wilderness) about 5 hours behind schedule.

After car sickness and slow northerly progress becomes intolerable, we are given directions to get out to Rt. 101, which is a boring parallel route that was nevertheless much more likely to get us to Sinkyone before November. We eagerly accept the trade-off.

Sinkyone Wilderness

We stop, seven hours after starting out at San Francisco (I originally estimated it would take four hours), at a small grocery store a few miles from Sinkyone to stock up on food for the upcoming hike. Amazing as it may seem, this spectacular state park is almost totally unknown by the locals at the check-out counter, but the wife of the owner assures us that the south entrance is clearly visible about seven miles down the road.

After driving for about 20 miles, we turned around, and begin to panic since it was near nightfall, and we still need to set up our tent in the Wilderness. There were no people or houses or shops to help us with directions, so we simply try each turn-off road, finally stumbling across a narrow dirt driveway that we are sure is leading to a private home. Instead, a sign about 400 feet from the main road (and therefore of no use to people looking for the road) tells us we are on the county road leading to Sinkyone. It is a hellacious 30-minute ...