Monday, May 1st – Saturday, May 6th
Three Rivers Hideaway
RV Park, Three Rivers, California
We drove east from the coast toward Sequoia National
Park, through some beautiful mountain valleys, then down to the “central valley”,
passing through many agricultural and industrial areas. This area is the San Joaquin
Valley, which is known as one of the largest agricultural areas in the country.
As we neared the eastern side of the
valley we thought we saw huge clouds in the distance, when we realized this was
snow covered Sierra Nevada Mountains. Wow, we didn’t know that these mountains
were so high and still had snow. We entered the town of Three Rivers and setup
our RV in a park just 3 miles from the entrance to the Park. This was a neat
little mountain town, no cell service except in the south side of town.
We spent one day in Sequoia, visiting all the iconic huge
trees. Even though we were close to the Park entrance, the drive up into the
mountains was a winding, switchback mountain road for 24 miles. We visited the
Sentinel Tree, General Sherman Tree and the Giant Forest of Sequoias. The Giant Forest Museum was interesting to
learn all about these special, ancient trees. It was amazing to view such huge
trees and to learn about the life and ages of the trees. The General Sherman is
the largest tree in the world by volume. Our hikes around the trees were easy,
1-3 miles in length. The northern portion of the Park was still closed due to
snow on the ground and some road closures. That was okay for us, as we saw the
main attraction trees. Kurt also hiked up to the peak of Moro Rock, where the
views of the Sierra Nevada’s were spectacular. After a few hours of “sequoia gazing”
we returned to the RV Park. It was a long day, and driving the winding mountain
roads was very tiring. Anyway, we did enjoy the trees and the beautiful
mountains.
Another feature in the area is the Kaweah River. With the
massive snows and early warm weather, the snowmelt had turned the Kaweah River and
its three forks into a raging, white water, dangerous rivers. While we were
there, a local 18 year old man slipped into the river and was found the next
day downstream. Very tragic for his family, so many people do not understand
the power of these raging rivers. The Park ended up closing all river access to
protect people from the danger. Our RV park was right on the Kaweah Middle
Fork. There was a “swimming hole” on a side section of the river. We did take
the dogs down to that beach and hang out a few times, but the water was
extremely cold and we didn’t let the dogs go near the river part. In the days
we were there, the river rose about 2 feet at the swimming hole.
There were mountain biking/hiking trails a couple of
miles from the RV park. We drove up in the foothill mountains and spent two
days there biking and another day we took the dogs for a hike. We all enjoyed
the activities there and got some exercise.
Another day, Kurt drove back into the lower part of Sequoia
NP to hike the Marble Falls Trail. He hiked up the mountain on the trail the
followed the river. There were several waterfall cascades and then Marble Falls
at the top of the trail. The pictures are amazing, as the surrounding rocks on
the side of the falls are bright, white marble. Very different from other
waterfalls we have seen.
Kaweah Lake is downstream of the convergence of the three
forks into the Kaweah River. We spent our last day on this lake at the
Slickrock Recreation Area. We took the dogs and a picnic lunch to the lake.
Kurt took the kayak and did paddle around a little. We had a nice day with
beautiful weather. After six days visiting this area, we were ready to move on
to Yosemite National Park. 