Amongst Giants, California, the Beautiful

Amongst Giants, California the Beautiful

We had to get on a jet plane and fly 41/2 hours from Atlanta to walk under the spell of these giants in the pristine snow-covered Giant Forest of Sierra Nevada, in the Sequoia National Park, in California. My friend Mary has a conference in Palm Springs, and what fun would it be to take a side trip and catch the snow before they melt in spring and go snowshoeing among the majestic giant sequoia redwoods. Well, what we thought was a 2 hour drive from Palm Springs turned out to be over 6 hours. First of all we left Palm Springs without a map. We thought we could just get on the road and follow signs to the giants, surely everyone knows where they are, after all they are unique to this place, nowhere else in the world do they grow naturally. The car rental desk had only a Palm Springs map which showed us how to get out of Palm Springs and then we imagined how to go from there. The random routes we picked fortuitously gave us the full flavor of the California landscape. Outside of Palm Springs, I-10 offered the alien scenery of white wind turbines against blue skies and stark land . The San Gorgonio Pass is a wind tunnel, and there are 3000 windmills looking like they are made from the same polymer material as the Star Wars storm troopers, with their 3-prong blades reminiscent of the Mercedes-Benz symbol. These erect wind catchers are planted in rows 700 feet apart like an orange grove as far as the edge of the San Jacinto mountains or looming over the Coachella valley on top of ridges looking like sentinels from outer space. We get on I-215 and briefly on I-15 traveling on winding roads cradling the San Bernardino Mountain seeing nothing but the road and the bare mountainside. We turned towards Route 395 which cuts across the Mojave desert, with its miles and miles of shimmering road reflecting the glitter of the sun. We admire the fortitude of the Joshua trees surviving in that harsh climate. Then approaching Bakersfield on Route 58, we first passed Edwards AFB then it's suddenly green and fertile with orange groves heavy with ripe fruits ready for picking, many have fallen from the branch and lay rotting on the ground. There are rows of grape vines trained to grow formally on trellises, pastures of grazing cows, and cookie-cutter housing developments built smack in the middle of nowhere. Then we are in Tulare County, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It is now dark. The climb to the Giant Forest was a mere 23 miles from the foothills but we didn't know it was a tightly wound road embracing the mountain with tight hairpin turns and convoluted spiral ascents that required intense focus and prayer especially in the darkness and there was no one else on the road but us and the prospect of a bear emerging from the forest hungry from its winter hibernation. It was unnerving to find out later that this road , Route 198, is carved overlooking deep ravines with snow embankments as high as 7 feet on its mountain side. It took us 2 ½ hours to reach Wuksachi Lodge at the 6500 ft. elevation, only to find out that the restaurant stopped serving meals 5 minutes ago, and the lodge had no room service and the nearest food joint is in the foothills, which we just left behind 2 ½ hours ago. But these were nice people and they called the kitchen, and they were only too happy to take our orders from their regular menu, and not to worry we can stay until dessert. We forgave the restaurant for touting in their brochure that they specialize in signature gourmet Sierra alpine cuisine. The snow covered forest outside our lodge window, the crisp 41 degree sunny weather and blue skies, the cedar scented air, and the friendly and charming lodge staff made up for the bland and limp pan seared red mountain trout, the unrecognizable meat loaf, the pasta special with Italian sausage and kalamata olives which I had to complain about because there were only traces of olives and 2 thin slices of sausage in the dish, so the chef was moved to send me a separate bowl of just sausage slices and olives, etc. Perhaps the restaurant is up to its advertised standards during their regular season which starts May 15. We booked in early April, which was at the end of the winter season and the resort activities shop had closed. There are no more rentals available for snowshoes, cross country skis and snow boots. The Crystal Cave with marble stalactites and stalagmites is closed and the road to Kings Canyon is off limits. But we can hike in the snow so we set out with excitement to see the big trees and headed to the Giant Forest Museum for information. We took pictures of the General Sherman Tree, the largest and oldest living thing at 52,508 cu. ft. and over 2000 years old. Wow! We asked directions to the Giant Forest trail, and set out on our own to be with the big trees. We underestimated the challenges of hiking on deep snow that had softened in 41 degree weather, and we didn't know that the trails are marked with symbols on trees and that trails are not alike. We were following a trails map to a grove of big trees named the Congress trail but we lost our direction. We found ourselves following footprints on the snow that are going up higher and higher which led us to a slippery narrow ledge against the mountain and we're looking down maybe over 200 feet of steep ravine. There were footprints so we figured it will lead somewhere so we continued, being careful to plant our boots so we will not slip. After rounding the side of the mountain we lost the trail signs and the footprints disappeared. We clambered over fallen trees hoping to pick up the trail but we fell thigh deep into the softening snow and suddenly it dawned on us that we could fall deeper into snow and we didn't know what's under them. And the fog was coming in and it was getting darker. I conceded to Mary's judgment that we should retrace our steps and return instead of continuing on trying to pick up the Congress trail from the Alta trail. When we emerged after 4 hours in the forest we realized that the Alta trail is an advanced trail, and we really had no business being there. From here on Mary didn't trust me and her decisions prevailed. So we just had safe walks which were boring, so in a way I was glad we got lost and didn't know what we're doing on that first day, after all all's well that ends well. Like everyone else we climbed the Moro Rock, 400 steps and 0.5 miles to the top of this granite monolith which was free of snow on that day so we went to the summit at 6725 ft., to view the vista of the Sierra Nevada range, the Giant Forest, the Kaweah River , the Kern Canyon, the great Western Divide, the whole breathtaking magnitude of it all. Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the US at 14,491 ft. crowns the Sierra. My brother Mike and Pilar joined us from Fresno on this climb and spent the day hiking with us and invited us to see the wonders of Yosemite, and he planned to return to Sequoia and Kings Canyon to camp in the summer.
After 4 days with natural wonders we're ready for the man-made wonders of Palm Springs. We took the quick route back on I-99 and I-5 , which eliminated the experience of the amazing and varied landscape of the place.
Approaching Palm Springs from I-10, we exit on Bob Hope Drive, then to Dinah Shore Drive to reach Westin Resort in Rancho Mirage. On one side of the road are gated luxury housing developments with multimillion price tags, imported shrubs and trees and grasses, and man-made lakes serving as hazards in verdant signature golf courses, over 150 of them in the area, absorbing thousands of gallons of water to maintain the greens. But not to worry. The Coachella Valley lies on top of an aquifer with bubbling hot springs and cool waters filtered from the melting alpine peaks of surrounding mountains. The Colorado River feeds a concrete aqueduct that irrigates the desert fields for produce worth over $500M annually. On the other side is Indian land. With only the road separating it from the lush settlement on one side, we see the authentic arid Sonoran desert landscape with the unrelenting sun, tumbleweeds, mesquite shrubs, and the multi-purpose creosote . We learned that the Cahuilla Indians of the region are the richest today because of 3 smart women who went to Washington DC during the homesteading era and did the paperwork to cement a deal that gave them 40% ownership of the desert when the railroad came calling to build. They lease the lands, own banks, businesses, and the casinos and the biggest, the Agua Caliente Casino Resort and Spa is currently undergoing a $300M expansion.
I couldn't wait to visit the San Andreas Fault, the cosmic point where 2 tectonic plates, the Pacific and the North American, slip and slide about 35 mm/year in opposite directions creating tremors in the earth or great earthquakes that can decimate Palm Springs and the rest of Southern California anytime between 1 year or 300 years, and can rearrange mountains and lakes and coastlines and push California towards Canada. I have imagined a deep dark chasm to the core of the earth, but instead the rupture is a ribbon of tropical oasis encircling the bottom of the San Jacinto mountains, with gurgling streams, palm trees, and many birds and creatures including rattlesnakes and tourists. For a different adventure we took the Palm Springs
Aerial Tram, the largest rotating tram car in the world, an engineering marvel constructed in the rugged Chino Canyon with the use of helicopters, and literally, a breathtaking ride to the summit of the San Jacinto Mountain, bringing us to 10,804 feet in 10 minutes and offering a spectacular 360 degree view of the entire Coachella Valley below. For the rest of the time we did our usual thing, play golf, tried Valley cuisine, attend corporate parties, and on the last day of Mary's conference, we had a novel treat. The corporate closing event was at the Empire Polo Grounds, one of 16 in the area, each grassy expanse the size of 9 football fields . We dressed up to attend an abbreviated polo match demonstration complete with an enthusiastic fast-talking announcer, got to meet the horses and their riders, then dined under Arabian-like tents with live music entertainment and pretended Prince Charles was in attendance and we were like ladies of the court and what not. A perfect fantasy in a town where streets are named after Hollywood stars and electricity bills are sky high to cool fancy homes built in the hottest and driest place in the USA. That's desert living.
On the flight back to Atlanta we were flying low in Skywest's 76-seater CRJ 100 to Salt Lake and beheld a panoramic and mesmerizing aerial view of the golden sands of the Sonora, the Algodones Dunes. I've never realized before that California is this beautiful!