Fresno has no reason to exist.

So coming out of Seqouia was a hassle. I am always on the lookout for wireless so I can get the blog up in a timely manner each day. Now the National Parks are far from big cities most of the time and this make it hard. So I have made only one mistake on this trip for sure, and that was trying to go to the town of Pinehurst to find wireless internet. Well it turns out that Pinehurst consisted of a bar and a few homes along 245. I do not get motion sickness. The roads out here are fun, fast, curvy, and exhilarating. California 245 sucked ass. I'd have to zoom in to show how incredibly curvey, hairpin after hairpin, stupid fast this road is. It was awful and made me sick. Downhill being slung by gravity and centripetal force around curves hurt.

Well I got pissed off at that road, and at Fresno for having NO AMENITIES. I have no idea what that damn city is there for. So I forgot the blog and set up the highway again to get close to the parks and make another trip in to see the beauty.

The pines start so abruptly once up the mountain, but before is the greenest grass you've ever seen.

Oh , the tiny pines, so green.

Bam, big ones.

There is no easy way to look at these giants.

General Grant is only one of the largest trees in the world.

These trees are inspiring and magnificent.

Ones right next to each other make them look like they are just normal size.

I feel gorgeous just being amongst them. That's how pretty they are.

So you've seen pictures of really huge pine cones before, right? The Seqouias are the largest trees in the world so they have big cones ya? They are so petite. Very distinguishable from others since they look faceted rather than scaly.

This area was devastated by a fire over 50 years ago. But it was logged before that anyway.

The hills in the smog is beautiful and awful. It;s pretty now but in the summer I bet you can't see anything out there.

On most of the humongous lodgeple pines was THE most brilliant green moss. Chartreuse doesn't even cut it.

Cinnamon bark stands out so well against the scenery.

This tree is so small it doesn't even have a name.

The mountains faded away in the distance. I had my car in neutral to save gas on the way down and kept getting up to 65mph slinging around curves. I probably could have turned my engine off and kept it in neutral even.

Through Fresno again I saw a lot of trains with so much graffiti, the people there know there's nothing to do in Fresno.

Desert homes always seem to have walls instead of fences.

Beverley Hills is so ritzy, but this is Chowchilla. Palms look so great untrimmed, Vegas always kept theirs trimmed and funny looking.

So getting to the bay area the smog never stopped. A huge reservoir that was used for everything including hydro power, and wind turbines on the hills seemed to have not made that much of an impact on the air pollution. No wonder California is the most liberal and forward thinking when it comes to politics, if they didn't, California would die. The highway to San Fransisco was hectic, fast, then stopped, then fast again, and never ending urbanity.

Ya, you could totally have a dance party on that.

Naval Base, Navel Oranges, Fuzzy Navel. Out of the almost barren desert of Death Valley came Joshua trees galore. I doubt as many or as large as Joshua Tree National Park to the south, but I'll not know for sure unless I go there too

Water in the desert. A lake that must get a lot of use. The lake bed was far below where it looks like it's supposed to be.

The river to Bakersfield was raging. The rocks rapids were amazing and the fall foliage was glistening.

After the curvy roads out of the canyon, the land got barren. Short grass only...except for the local crop. Oranges.

Man were they green. There were so many beehives around to pollinate the fruit.

There was a weird haze on the horizon. After the oranges there a lot of oil drills.

The roadside was full of palms and whatever crops.

I thought the haze was from the soil being upturned for planting. This being that this area has more than one growing season.

I knew there were mountains on the horizon, but you could not tell at all.

I finally got to Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. I didn't know that the parks were adjoining.

WOW. Period.

A sign about the park said that the haze was just pollution. The San Joaquin Valley below had the worst haze in the summer, winter being the clearest. Can you see the mountains? I couldn't. Sad.

Granted there is supposed to be some haze because of moisture rising, but geez.

Oh, the Seouias. These trees are amazing. Pictures do not show how spectacular the scale is. I mean they are only 30-40 feet across.

Only.

Fire scars ripped gashes in the trees, but two foot bark protects the living tissue.

Some trees ay be hollow from being fire damaged then healed over.

There were the tent-like trees branch things again.

I got to the park late because of the long drive around the mountains so I had to get away. But tomorrow was new light.

The haze over the mountains is eerily beautiful. I wonder the effects on the landscape it has. And no wonder I saw so many smog check stations across southern California.