Yosemite/Sequoia in November – Intro

Next: Sequoia and Kings Canyon – Day 1

For Thanksgiving 2022 we planned to visit travel buddies from our Backroads hiking trips.  We would spend a few days, including Thanksgiving with Ann in San Rafael, California (just north of San Francisco), then we would drive to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks for four nights, and then end our trip with two days at our friend John’s condo along Lake Tahoe, in Tahoe City, California.

The itinerary was:

	Leave	Arrive	Activity	Driving Time
22-Nov	Grand Rapids	San Francisco	Stay with Ann in San Rafael. Tool around San Francisco	Layover in Denver
25-Nov	San Francisco	Kings Canyon/Sequoia NP	Check in Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia NP	5 hours
26-Nov			Do Kings Canyon NP. Hike what we can.
27-Nov			Do Sequoia NP. Hike what we can.
28-Nov	Kings Canyon NP	Yosemite NP	Check in Yosemite Valley Lodge.	4 hours
29-Nov			Do Yosemite Valley. Hike Yosemite Falls.
30-Nov	Yosemite NP	Lake Tahoe (Tahoe City)	Stay with John at Condo. Tool around Lake Tahoe area.	5 hours
3-Dec	Lake Tahoe/Reno	Grand Rapids	Early Flight	Layover in Dallas

Mount Tam and Sonoma County Wineries

November 22-24

While in San Rafael for a few days, the highlights were:

Visiting two excellent but very different Sonoma County wineries: the elegant Ridge Vineyards in Lytton Springs,

and the earthy Preston Farm and Winery in Healdsburg;

Finding lunch to-go in the artsy, funky, frontier town of Geyserville near the wineries;

Eating really good Chinese food in downtown San Francisco (no pics….too busy trying to figure out what we were eating);

And, hiking around the East Peak at Mt. Tamalpais State Park (Mt. Tam).  After paying $8 to park in the small upper lot, we set out on the easy but highly rewarding .7-mile Verna Dunshee Loop Trail. This highly accessible trail is where we were treated to constant, spectacular views of the Bay area from 2,500’ up. Emilie and I took a 400′ spur trail to an overlook that probably wasn’t necessary, but with these spurs we are like moths to the flame.  Driving here from San Rafael was far more challending than hiking the loop trail.  We drove miles and miles of very windy, heavily wooded expensive neighborhoods at a steady incline for over half an hour. We were actually hurrying a bit to be sure we could drive down with the daylight.

Next: Sequoia and Kings Canyon – Day 1