Winter Weeks in the West

After about 10 years, Sumukha and I had to part ways. He shifted to San Jose, California in November 2021 for his job and I stayed back at Penn State for my Ph.D. Naturally, my next destination for the trip was California. My other friend and neighbor Sujay and his brother Sanjay also agreed to join the 2-week trip to California for the winter break. This was one of those trips that don’t go anything as planned and end up being one of the most memorable ones.

Considering the time, weather, accommodation, transport, and, of course, affordability, Sujay and I came up with an itinerary for the trip. We planned to visit Kings Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, Lake Tahoe, Monterey Bay, and Point Reyes. We came up with the most optimal schedule so that we could save money on accommodation. We also had buffer days in between to accommodate for the surprises that nature might throw at us given that we were going for the winter and also a huge snowstorm was expected in the Sierra Nevada region.

Let me just briefly explain the itinerary spread over the 2-weeks (works just fine if you’re planning a similar one) that we initially planned. I want to speak about this because I want to emphasize how we had to make drastic changes to our itinerary while we were on the trip. Bottom-line, we had to pretty much scrap the entire itinerary and had to plan our trip impromptu every night based on the next day’s weather. The idea was that we had to land in Cali during the wee hours of 25th December, rest for the day and visit Kings Canyons on 26th, stay in a hotel in Fresno and visit sequoia on 27th, come back to Fresno and visit Yosemite on 28th. Rest on 29th and visit Lake Tahoe on the 30th. We decided to rest for the weekend since we had plans to visit some relatives as well. On Jan 3rd, the plan was to drive all the way to Point Reyes via Golden Gate Bridge. Monterey Bay (Carmel by the sea, 17-mile drive, and the aquarium) was scheduled for Jan 4th and, finally, a visit to San Francisco on 6th Jan and fly back to JFK on the early morning of Jan 8th. This was the idea. We knew that we would have to make changes based on the snowstorm. This itinerary was feasible even with a few changes. But that was not the case for us :P

Sujay and I decided to reach JFK one day earlier because we got a ride all the way to New York from Aaryan (my flatmate) who was leaving for India. We had an amazing stay at Shri Paramahans Advait Mat. We had the great opportunity of helping the ashramites with the decorations for the Christmas and New Year celebrations. Sanjay, Sujay’s brother, met us at the JFK airport on the 24th evening and we were off to Cali. We had Sumukha pick us up in SF. We reached San Jose and rested for the day. To our surprise, it was raining the entire day, which is not so common in Cali.

We were all set to visit King’s Canyon National Park on the 26th. We woke up early in the morning and drove all the way to King’s Canyon. The best part of starting the journey early in the morning is that you get the best view during sunrise. And the fact that the route from San Jose to King’s Canyon is astoundingly picturesque just took our experience to next level. As we entered the Sierra Nevada region we started seeing the effects of the snowstorm. The landscape slowly started changing as we gained more and more altitude. The green forest slowly started turning white and after a few miles into the forest region, we were officially in the winter wonderland. The landscape had totally turned white. According to our Google search, we Sierra Nevada region had marked a record with a whopping 154 inches of snow.

We could easily see 6 to 7 feet of snow next to the roads. But we made it to the Grant Grove village and took a stroll around the massive General Grant Tree. This was the first time I had visited the west coast and, of course, the first time ever I saw the redwoods. Man! They are huge. Huge, really, is an understatement. The General Grant Tree is the second-largest tree in the world that is 267 feet tall and is about 3000 years old. We did not have much to do there because of the massive amount of snow. Consequently, many roads were closed too. We decided to head back to Fresno according to the itinerary. But we were sure of one thing Sequoia and Yosemite were not accessible in the next two days. So we had to change our plans. On our way back to Fresno we came up with a plan based on the weather: our next destination was Monterey Bay, a 17-mile drive, and the Monterey Bay aquarium. We also had to plan the itinerary for the next couple of days as well in view of our accommodation. So we planned on visiting the Big Sur and Point Reyes. Fortunately, there were certain times of the day when there was no rain and a lot of sunshine. We decided to cancel our stay in Fresno the next day and headed back to Monterey Bay the next morning.

In order to make the best use of the sun-time available, we decided to do the 17-mile drive first and then the aquarium. Mother Nature was kind enough to shine some sun on us the moment we reached the coast. The breathtaking view of the colossal Pacific ocean kissing at Sky at the horizon was a treat to the eyes. It was a combination of a dark blue ocean with snow-white waves with a tinge of green hitting the beige rocks under the bright light of the sun. Honestly, words run short to describe the inexplicable beauty of Nature. We just stopped at almost every drive-through stop to take pictures and enjoy the view. It took a little over an hour to complete the 17-mile drive and we were off to see the Monterey Bay aquarium. I can honestly say that I had never seen so much rush anywhere in the US. It was literally like standing in the long queues of South Indian temples. It took us about 40 mins to just enter the aquarium. It was because of the pandemic that they had to verify the vaccination status of each and every visitor. It’s a whole new bizarre world inside the aquarium. There are creatures with shapes, textures, colors, and abilities that you will know can exist only after you have seen them. We spent hours looking through the bewitching underwater world that I never knew existed.

Our next destination before we took a day off was the Big Sur. I think any explanation with words is an injustice to what it has to offer when you drive along Highway 1. Words really run short to express the sublime beauty that Nature has to offer with humongous mountains on one side and the gargantuan Pacific ocean on the other side. We planned to drive from San Jose to Morro Bay along Highway 1. But, due to a landslide, roads were closed beyond Ragged Point. But it really did not matter to us. We drove stopping every 5 minutes to click pictures and enjoy Nature. The ridges formed by the mountains looked as if the mountains were stretching their arms and legs to get a dip in the ocean enticed by its irresistible beauty. By evening, fog covered the distant ridges giving the entire scene a cloudy texture with a blackish-blue overlay. It was just a treat to the eyes.

Having had three strenuous days of journey, we decide to take a day off. Our next destination was the very tip of Northern America, the Point-Reyes. As usual, we started early in the morning and drove all the way to Point Reyes via the Golden-gate bridge. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. Point Reyes offers a stunning view of the Pacific and lush green meadows. One can often spot a large number of deers, eagles, seagulls, pelicans, and most importantly, huge lazy sea lions. Literally being the edge of the world, Point Reyes affords astounding cliff-views. We first visited the Point Reyes ship wreckage. Although there is nothing to see there, we did get an amazing landscape for some drone photography. We also paid a visit to the Cypress Tree tunnel, a canopy of Cypress trees. Next, we made a beeline to the Point Reyes lighthouse. The 15 min walk from the parking lot to the lighthouse has much more to offer than the lighthouse itself. We spent a considerable amount of time enjoying the staggering views. Later, we hiked the Chimney Rock trail to reach the end of the cliff. I was too curious to find out what was right beneath the cliff and carefully leaned over to sneak a peek. I saw hundreds of sea lions lying around. Few with newly born pups. I even saw a mom sea lion projecting its pups from predators. It was an absolutely thrilling view. I also got to see tens of pelicans resting on rocks that were deep in the ocean but only partially drowned. Having enjoyed hours of impressive sight, we head back home.

The next morning, we decided to go somewhere close to San Jose and headed toward Santa Cruz to visit the Henry Cowell Redwood State Park and the Natural Bridges State Beach. We strolled across the state park leisurely through the afternoon trying to fathom the height of the Redwoods and enjoyed the sunset by the ocean. We headed back home and rested for the next two days enjoying some good food and much-needed day-offs.

There were just two more destinations remaining on our list. The renowned Yosemite National Park and the famous (and infamous) San Francisco city. After the weekend’s rest, we started off early towards Yosemite. We had to push Yosemite towards the end of our itinerary because of the snowstorm in the Nevada-Sierra region. We reached Yosemite in time and it was nothing less than winter-wonderland. Although winter wonderlands are not new for those of us who stay in the Northeast of the US, a national park like Yosemite always has something exciting to offer. The first stop was the tunnel view that afforded us a glimpse of what was in store for us. To put things in perspective, if Yosemite were a book, then the tunnel view is like reading the contents page. Who has not seen Yosemite at least in pictures? But Yosemite with snow is something that you don’t get to see often. It was absolutely gorgeous. Both El Capitan and Half Dome stood redoubtable defining the valley of Yosemite. Unfortunately, we did not have access to a few viewpoints (Glacier Point) that we had on our list. Nonetheless, we visited lower Yosemite falls, El Capitan meadow, and the Sentinal Meadow. We drove almost everywhere possible until the end of the day enjoying the snow-decorated picturesque views of Yosemite.

Our last destination was San Francisco city. Without an ounce of thought, we took public transport from San Jose to SF. We visited the twin peaks only to stare at dense fog. We visited Lombart Street and Ghirardelli Square (I honestly don’t know why are they so famous. I wouldn’t have missed anything had I not visited). One thing I really did enjoy was an hour-long Bay-cruise around Alcatraz. Finally, we did travel in the cable car to reach the train station and made our way back home. It really was not the best of endings to one of the most wonderful trips ever in the US.

We had one day to rest and pack our bags to get back to reality. On the 8th of January, Sujay, Sanjay, and I flew back to New York and Sumukha left for India. In a nutshell, it was one of the best ever trips that I had embarked on. There is nothing that can beat the beauty of Nature. The stupendous mountain ranges, the humongous oceans, the tallest of the trees, and whatnot!

Dream. Travel. Explore.