Week of June 25th, 2001 It was to be the trip of extremes - planned or unplanned. For weeks we had been debating over this. First off, as luck would have it, this year's 4th of July fell on a Wednesday, which meant taking 2 days off your precious yearly vacation time to make it worthwhile. The other route was to butter up to the powers that be and shift the national holiday to either the preceding Monday or coming Friday. I immediately took a liking to the latter. With three days in hand, we had to decide what to cover. The dropping stock market, our laziness to do any camping/treking and our common fear of flying meant that a local California trip would be the best medicine. Slowly, a plan materialized. The theme was covering the extremes in the Lower 48. In particular we wanted to visit the deepest canyon: the Kings River Canyon; get a glimpse of the highest peak: Mount Whitney; and finally visit the lowest and hottest place: Death Valley National Monument. Preparations began with a look at the weather report for these places. Kings Canyon National Park was predicted to be sunny and bright all through the week, extending beyond the 3-day journey we were about to embark on. Death Valley, on the other hand, was sunny and bright during day, with predictions of thunderstorms late afternoon, every day, all week and extending beyond our 3-day plan. Thunderstorms, what thunderstorms? After 6 years of listening to Californians' claims of stormy weather when in fact all we ever get are wimpy showers every winter, I was ready to throw this prediction out of the window the moment I saw it. Bad mistake, as we later found out.

Our itenary took us to Kings Canyon National Park on Friday morning. After spending the whole day exploring the Kings river and the Sequoias, we would head down south to Bakersfield to stay the night. Early next morning, we would head towards Death Valley and return back to Bakersfield that evening. On Sunday, if we have any bubbling enthusiasm left over, the plan was to cover Sequoia National Park (or at least get a glimpse of the General Sherman Tree) before heading back to the humdrum of San Jose by night.

Friday, 6th July, 2001

Despite some anxiety-related sleeping problems that Rachna had, we were up and ready by 6:30am - which was midnight by our sleeping standards. By 7:00, we were cruising down 101-South towards Gilroy. There was the inevitable early morning valley haze, but otherwise the day looked promising. After filling up our lungs and the car with the garlic aroma emanating from Gilroy's farmlands on both sides of CA-152, we headed towards CA-99 which passes through the heart of the Californian farm country.

By the time we reached Fresno at 10:15, there wasn't even a hint of visible sunlight. Heavy clouds were on us. We were starving at this point. We also needed gas. Since I had always wanted to have a McDonald's breakfast, but could never ever wake up in time for it, we decided to give it a shot. Its location right next to the gas station heavily influenced our decision. Very greasy, but quite tasty. Though I would never wake up early again for this. Time to hit the Sierras.

Getting onto CA-180 from within the city of Fresno is no easy feat. The signs are confusing, and the highway itself becomes a regular street inside the city, making it difficult to locate. I did what most drivers do under this situation. I did not ask for directions. Instead, I assumed that every car I saw going in the general direction of what the signs pointed to, must be moving towards CA-180. So, I followed the mob. Few minutes later, I was crawling down a narrow road heading towards the Sierras, but with a speed limit of 25. Was this 180? Maybe it was. Let me drive a couple more blocks and we will know for sure.

All this time, Rachna kept telling me that I was wrong, and that we should ask for directions. After around 10 miles of this nonsense, Rachna couldn't take it any more, and I had to stop and ask for directions. I walk into a convenience store, and who do I find there, but a Desi (common name for anyone from India). They are everywhere. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that we were heading in the right direction, though not on CA-180. A few small maneuvers, and we were speeding away. The bad news was that the weather predictions was way off. It had started drizzling and showed no sign of clearing up. Consolation: Maybe its raining because we are in the valley, and it will clear up once we get higher into the Sierras. Fact: It rained relentlessly till about 7:30pm, when we were about to head back to Bakersfield.

CA-180 is a gradual rise towards the Park entrance. The landscape first turns into a barren golden brown, and then metamorphoses into lush green. As soon as you start enjoying the greenery, you encounter the Big Stump Basin - a dark reminder of Smith Comstock's lumbering operations. As we were approaching noon, we quickly drove on towards the Big Stump Park Entrance. A fee of $10 gives you access to the park for a week. From then on it was an easy drive to the first big-name tourist spot - The General Grant Grove.

Grant Grove is the first place where the sheer size of the Sequoias start overwhelming you. On the approach to Grant Grove, the trees start growing fatter and taller, forcing you to stop and explore them at every step. On reaching the grove, you find groups of really fat and tall Sequoias all huddled together. So by the time you actually reach the Grant Tree, you have lost all your appetite for surprises, and the official wonder looks pale in comparison to its surroundings. Its the third largest tree in the world at 267.4 feet in height, but you wouldn't believe that.

The Grant Grove trail is a small 0.3 mile paved loop showcasing some intersting aspects of the Sequoias. You can start with the The Happy Family on your right - a small group of Sequoias bunched up together. A few steps down the line you come across the Fallen Monarch, a once-gigantic Sequoia, struck by lightning, which now lies burnt and devastated. The entire trunk was burnt hollow, allowing you to walk through it and admire its size. The Robert E. Lee tree beside it has become a modern landmark, with countless signatures engraved on its sliced trunk.

The next attraction, ladies and gentlemen, is the Grant Tree itself. If you have a simple point-and-shoot, there is a photo-point for you to capture the entire tree in a single frame. If you get too close to the tree, you will either have to use some sort of panoramic stitching or a wide angle lens. In 1872, Thomas and Israel Gamlin were the first white residents of Grant Grove. They grazed cattle here till 1890 when the Grove was designated as a National Park. Gamlin cabin, which they built from sugar pine logs, was their habitat during that timeframe, and it was later used by the US Cavalry for storage purposes.

This trail also lets lazy people like us, who don't have physical exercise in their vocabulary, get close and personal with the forest surroundings. You can bump into leaves full of caterpillars, or admire the lush green moss growing on the barks of black oaks. Since it was overcast, even drizzling, it was a perfect day to photograph all the colors around you.

Having done the Grant Tree pilgrimage, it was time to head inside deeper into the park. Given the paucity of time, we decided to drive all the way down to Roads End on Kings Canyon Scenic Byway. We resolved not to stop in between. We wanted to rate the interesting points and guage the time it takes to cover this stretch, and then cover the well-rated places on the way back. We ended up stopping at every breathtaking view on the way to and from Roads End.

Soon after Grant Grove, CA-180 starts climbing higher into the Sierras. The road condition is excellent, better than all roads in the Bay Area, and not too curvy - its a delight to drive through this park. There are turnouts almost every mile or two from where you can take in the silent enormity of the lush mountainscape. Tourist count is incredibly low, especially compared to the Park's northern neighbour - Yosemite. We met the same group of 9-10 bikers almost everywhere we went. They were much more daring than we were, climbing down the sides of the turnouts to get a better view. We tried that at one turnout, and pledged never to do it again.

After cutting through the first few mountainous layers, the lush green surroundings start transforming into gray rock, with red minerals (iron complexes) and green moss splattered on the rock-face for variety. The deafening silence starts getting overpowered by the echoing roar of the Kings River. A couple of winding turns later, you find yourself on a lookout perch staring thousands of feet below at your first look of the Kings River, roaring and reverberating inside the incredibly deep canyon it has carved out for itself.

The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway starts dropping rapidly from this point on, passing beside the Kings Canyon Lodge, a splash of red thrown in the middle of the greenery, right down to Boyden Cave, at approximately 4000 feet - level with the screaming and meandering Kings River. Boyden Cave is the first major stop on the Byway after Grant Grove. You have your assorted refreshment and curio shops, along with a trail to the actual cave, which we didn't have time to explore. From here on till Roads End, you are in constant company of the bubbling river.

Driving a few miles further south brings you to Grizzy Falls - nothing spectacular, but quite refreshing. You can easily walk to the base of the Falls from the parking lot. Just don't use the restroom here though - you are better off saving it till you hit Cedar Grove Village. Or maybe, it was our bad day.

The Village is a quaint little township of its own at an elevation of 5050 feet. The River has become relatively quiter at this point. Chipmunks, ground squirrels and birds compete with the river to be heard. Very close to the parking lot, we saw a blue-bodied Steller Jay hopping between the rounded rocks. With the zoom on my D460 set to maximum (equivalent to a 105mm lens), I framed the bird. There was so much clutter all around and all in perfect focus, that I decided to tiptoe in closer to the bird. If you want to know what a lack of proper equipment can do to you, you should have watched me trying to photograph the Jay. It hopped further and further away from me, as I tried to tiptoe in closer, till a point at which I was literally running after it crouched with my camera. Finally, the bird could take it no more and took flight away from this tomfoolery.

Exhausted and depressed, we headed through the last stretch of this Byway towards Roads End. The road actually ends at this point, leaving miles of unexplored territory for the hiker in you. Well, there was no hiker in me. So, after soaking in the beauty of the Grand Sentinel and North Dome, we turned back. If it weren't drizzling so relentlessly, we could have taken the small trails to Zumwalt Meadows and Mist Falls. But the nagging rain was too overpowering.

Driving back, we stopped at some lookouts which didn't look interesting from the other side of the Byway, otherwise it was a straight drive back till Grant Grove. There was a small 12 mile detour towards Hume Lake through a narrow, almost one-way, road. We caught a view of the lake, but for some reason it was closed to traffic, maybe since the rain had made the road slippery. Back near Grant Grove, we faced the same situation when driving to Panoramic Point.

With nothing better to do, we decided to call it quits and head towards Bakersfield for the night. Instead of taking CA-180 back towards Fresno, we decided to be creative and take CA-245 instead. There was good news and bad news. Good news: I haven't had as much fun driving on any other highway till date. Very curvacious and completely deserted, CA-245 decends in complicated curls straight down towards sealevel. I did not use my gas pedal even once, cutting through the central divider line posed no threats at all. If you are fond of thrilling bends, you have to take a trip down CA-245. Bad News: Rachna was getting a splitting headache from all the twists and turns. Moreover, the sky was finally clearing up!

After being spoilt by all the fun on CA-245, it was time to merge into CA-99 towards Bakersfield. The thrill hadn't reduced, though. Traffic on 99 that day is the worst traffic I have ever seen (barring Calcutta). Pickups everywhere! They were cutting in front of you at alomst 100mph - by driving in your lane, waiting for you to slow down to avoid a collision, and then overtaking you. I was glad I reached Bakersfield in one piece. Time to grab a quick bite, and crash. It would be a long day tomorrow.