ansh

Ok, so here is a second phase of my 2-week trip to California. I poseted the first phase that we traveled vegas and grand canyon in Arizona form. In this leg, we travelled as following –

Los Angeles  PCH-1 to Monterey  Monterey & Santa Cruz  PCH-1 to San Francisco  Yosemite NP  Sequoia NP  Los Angeles

Day-1:

After overnight stay in Los Angeles, we visited Universal Studios in LA on Wednesday. I have already visited all theme parks of LA 3 years ago, but my wife have never been to Universal, so we decided to spend a day there – actually half-a-day. We liked studio tour, some water-world show (you’re going to get wet for sure; and its fun to seat in front rows), taking photo with various characters and specially we liked Donkey of Shrek. Oh man…he just talks and talks and he is hilarious. In the late afternoon, as we were done with studio, we went to 3120 Canyon Lake Dr. location and took couple of snaps with Hollywood sign.

Day-2:

Reached Santa Barbara in the late morning, visited boardwalk & downtown. We were impressed by downtown shopping area, its really cool. We also visited Court House, they have 2PM free tour everyday. I would suggest that for family with young kids or anyone who is into arts or history. The court house is full to beautiful paintings and has rich historical background. Then we visited Santa Barbara mission.

We also stop by in Morro Bay and quickly visited Morro Rock on the way. We wanted to visit Pismo beach, we were running short of time so we headed to Cambria. The Cambria pines Lodge is beautiful place. We also like the town itself.

Day-3:

Cambria pines lodge has beautiful gardens, one should visit it even if you’re not a guest there and have some spare time in cambria. We headed to Big Sur. On the way we saw elephant seals near Sam Simeon on PCH-1. The actual beauty of PCH-1 starts from Cambria. You’re driving next to Pacific Ocean. It was little cold in mid-june, so we couldn’t utilize our rented convertible. We visited Jade Cove beach. Don’t pay $5 for parking; one can park outside anywhere on PCH-1. We had a nice veggie sandwich at Lucia Lodge on PCH-1, and the fries were really awesome there.

We were lucky as PCH-1 re-opened just 4 days before our trip. The route was smooth, no traffic issues and of course – a beautiful drive. We stopped at numerous vista points randomly. Each view has its own beauty. We took our own sweet time to cruz on PCH-1. We visited McWay falls (Must-see) just before sunset in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

We stayed in Pacific Grove at Lover’s point inn. Even though everything is awesome about inn, but the room was small even for two of us!

We had diner at Ambroasia restaurant in Monterey, which is an indian place. And you know what, the restaurant was packed and we were the ONLY indian there!! That shows how good the place-n-food must be.

Day-4:

Visited Monterey fisherman’s Wharf, we saw some seals. We were supposed to do hikes in Big Sur, but my wife wanted to visit Santa Cruz, so we went there. We visited Mystery Spot; that was a wonderful experience. It was 45-mins tour that challenges laws of gravity. In the late afternoon we came back to Monterey, went to Point Lobos state park. There is some seal-trail that was very interesting. Even kids would like it, as well as adults. It was like shaking hands with mother mature. We parked outside along PCH-1 and walked inside. It was a short walk from main entrance. This one is really must-see. In fact, this is better place to see sea-lions than fisherman’s wharf. Then, we went to Carmel, visited the mission, downtown shops and did some shopping. We like it so much.

Day-5:

We actually did not plan to visit san Francisco, but at last moment we decided to have a long day with some extra drive. I don’t mind driving (I’ve drove san francisco to NJ in 2.5 days with my friend), so we started from Monterey to Pigeon point lighthouse place and stopped over in Half moon bay. Both places are good, specially we liked beach at half moon bay. Water was really cold for swimming, but the weather was very nice. We had lunch at “tres amigos” which is very near from the beach on PCH-1 in half moon bay. They offer free (and free refill, too) chips and salsa, that was very tasty.

Directly went to golden gate bridge, as that was the only place we wanted to see in SAF. There is a $5-per-day parking slot on west side of southern end. Walked on the bridge and took some great pics. Then, we headed to Merced, CA – where we booked a motel before going to Yosemite next day.

To our surprise, we found a good indian restaurant (taste of little india) in Merced!! Even being vegetarian, we never had any problem with finding good restaurant, either an indian or mexican food.

Day-6:

Morning drive to Yosemite national park from Merced, drove thru big farms of pistachio, peach, grapes and oranges. As soon as we got close to Yosemite NP, we hit traffic congestion. But we were not in rush as we are gonna stay in Yosemite for 2 nights. In the afternoon we did hike to Nevada falls (mist trail). Checked-in to curry village tent in night. The pizza place near gift center in Yosemite is good – and only place open for diner ;-). We had a wonderful experience of camp-life in curry village tent.

In the evening we drive to Teneya lake on Tioga pass road. It’s a beautiful and very scenic drive. We saw snow all over the place (but not on roads), which was very surprising. Teneya lake is almost 40-45 miles away from the valley. We also saw a black bear on the way, we were so happy to see it. Usually bears are brown in that area.

Day-7:

We did Yosemite falls trail, swinging bridge and meadows trail in the morning. Then we headed to glacier point, where we did taft point trail on the way. We highly recommend this hike, the views are awesome. The view at glacier point is also unimaginable!
Day-8:

We started for Cedar grove, Kings Canyon (sequoia NP) via Fresno. We skipped mariposa grove, as we are going to see their big brothers in sequoia. Another good drive to kings canyon thru farms, and kings canyon itself is very beautiful. We stop by for grizzly falls, roaring river falls etc and had booking in Cedar grove lodge there. Highway 180 is an American byway. We see a bear there, too. This time, it was a brown bear. Cedar grove lodge is very nice and relaxing place.

Day-9:

We were getting close to end of our tour. Its been almost 2 weeks and we wanted to go back home. But the amazing beauty of sequoia tree almost changed our plan. Grant grove, general Sherman, tunnel tree etc. are main spot of the park. We could have done some ranger talk programs, but we were running short of time. The museum in sequoia is also nice and informative. While going out towards three rivers, CA, there is a construction going on in the park that made us delay for an hour. Then, we rushed to LAX to catch out flight back home.

Some of the website that helped me to plan hikes in big sur and Yosemite –
http://www.hikinginbigsur.com/ and http://www.yosemitehikes.com/

let me know if you have any question, I tried to mention as much details as I can, and that made me write almost 3 pages ;-) But, I would love to address any question you may have.

MichelleY

Thanks for the report!!

elnap29

Glad to hear about Sequoia, as that is the one park in California we have yet to visit.