Still no idea what I was doing on this adventure, but I would quickly figure it out. I pulled into the truck stop just as the sun was setting to take a quick photo of a beautiful pink and blue sunset that I think secretly spoke to my subconscious mind and told me where I would be going. It might sound crazy, but right as the sun set I knew I would be heading to Sequoia. I knew nothing about the area and really had no idea what to expect. So I opened my big atlas to see how far away I was. Turns out I was only a few hours away! I got some sleep (the best you can at a busy truck stop) and woke up feeling ready to go.

I got to the park early and it was love at first sight. The winding roads, beautiful mountains, and HUGE trees. I knew I would be staying here for a few nights. I did all the tourist car stops in the park and quickly realized I needed to find some back country hiking and campsites. I found a place to park the car and started to hike into an area that said it had some primitive campsites just a few miles in. I found the camp site and was surprised at how open the clearing was, but I set up camp anyway and started to build my fire. While doing my camping activities, I could hear some people hiking on the trail I was camped off of. The normal chatter started to turn into yelling, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying, then I heard “A BEAR! A BEAR IS ON THE TRAIL!!”. I immediately jumped up. I grabbed my knife and fire starter that had a whistle and got ready to chase this bear out of my campsite. Turns out it was only a bear maybe a year or two old, just roaming around on the trail. The family that was yelling consisted of a mother, daughter, and son from Germany. The mother and daughter were the ones yelling and the bear was very close to the son. I was yelling and blowing my whistle until the bear ran off into the woods. The family had no idea I was even there until I came running on to the trail like a crazy man with a knife in one hand and a fire starter in the other. All they kept saying to me after the bear ran off was “You saved our life, you saved us”. I laughed and said, “No, the yelling and whistle did that.” Looking back I sure wish I had grabbed my camera rather than the knife haha, but oh well. After this, I moved camp just a few miles away and a little more off the trail just to be safe.

The next day I did some more hiking around the park and seeing more wild life, while being mesmerized at the magic of this place. I ended up staying in the park for about a week just camping in different places and trying to take in as much as I could before I had to go back to LA for the next job. While leaving the park I realized this was my first real California adventure and I was so happy that Sequoia National Park could be the first. What would follow after this park includes the whole coast of California, Yosemite, and much much more. I will be writing about those places soon. If you haven’t been to Sequoia National Park do yourself a favor and take a few days to see this beautiful place.