Here we are on our journey. The middle of this fine golden state. What is there of note? Not much gold anymore... But there's San Francisco, the world's shittiest city...... Ha, now I got your attention Jen. No San Fran's great. But so much has been written on this place that I can't really add anything to the conversation. I will mention a word on Oakland though. Oakland has a reputation as being a super shady, shit hole. I had heard buzz though that it was in the midst of some sort of renaissance so when I had to go there for work last year, I was actually pretty excited. I was expecting a place that was culturally interesting, gritty, but now hip. Eh, not so much. Yeah there are some new buildings but it all feels like such forced gentrification. It felt fake. Don't try to make a place something it's not. I'm not knocking the true Oakland at all. I'm not calling it a scary ghetto. I'm saying that its charm isn't its fancy new lofts on the water.
The main attractions of mid-California aside from San Fran and the gorgeous coastal landscapes of Carmel and Big Sur are the national parks. On one hand you have a crown jewel of the system: a little place called Yosemite. Then there's the awkwardly named King's Canyon/Sequoia National park, which although listed as one park is really two parks.
Let's start with the one you've heard about, Yosemite. This place is named after the lovable redneck Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam. Legend has it that the El Capitan rock inside Yosemite looks like Yosemite Sam's mustache, so they named the whole park after him. How kind. Ansel Adams took lots of pictures of this place. I think he lived there... What's there to say? There's tons to do. You can scale the face of El Capitan, sleeping in a little cocoon as you climb. Or if you aren't a talented rock-climber, you can play in the waterfalls. Here's the thing about Yosemite. It's fucking filthy. It's really sad. There are so many damn people at this place that you can't go far without finding a KitKat wrapper or a beercan amidst the natural wonders. Speaking of those natural wonders, although they're cool, they don't quite live up to the hype... That is until you look at your pictures. I really think this place is nicer in photos than in person. You can't see the trash in the pictures.. well unless you took pictures of the trash.
One thrilling moment that you can't get in a photo came when I checked into a creepy old Shining-esque inn on park grounds. As I walked down a long walkway to the lobby's entrance, I heard a growl from the rafters. I looked up and an adorable raccoon was hissing at me!! Ah, the wonders of wildlife. Brought me back to that innocent time when I wanted to be Ranger Rick.
But raccoons aside, save your time and money and go see the giant trees at Kings Canyon/Sequoia. Well Kings Canyon doesn't really have too many giant trees. It's just a beautiful canyon with plenty of other impressive vistas. I think there may be a sequoia or two in the park after all. But the real artillery is in the park that's actually named after the tree. I already talked about the redwoods, but these sequoia things are even more serious. They are fat ass trees. Tall and wide. These guys got GIRTH. A few may've even been choad trees (wider than they are long). My favorite section is the fallen tree that you can drive through. I probably looped around and around this same tree for an hour. It never got old. Solid gold I tell ya, solid freakin gold.
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