Camp1 - next to a meadow on Tenmile Creek

My first time in Sequoia since a child, I wasn't exactly sure where I would stay. I had called ahead of time and found that the Lodgepole campground was the best bet ... not too crowded yet because of the cool weather (maybe freezing at night). They had not yet turned on the water. When I drove thru it on Friday around 2:00 p.m., I found it about 10% occupied (about 10 campers in tents and one or two R.V.s in a campground that holds more than 100 campers). Howerver, one of the things I wanted to try with the Roadtrek was to go off somewhere on National Forest land, so, I passed up Lodgepole and kept heading up the road.

After a bit of work to find a NF Ranger (not a Park Ranger) .. I got a fire permit and made sure it was ok for me to do "dispersed" camping. So then I checked out a bunch of forest roads. As I was heading north on the forest road from highway 120 to Hume Lake, just before the Tenmile Creek Campground, I came across a secondary forest road that led off to the right next to this really nice meadow. I went up the main road and checked out the campground, found a few folks there, but felt like I would be just as happy by the meadow, so turned around, went up the small road next to the meadow, and found a really nice camping spot, a little clearing, previously used, just off the side road. It was protected from view from the main road by the huge trees and a rock outcropping, yet was only feet from the meadow.

I hadn't realized how important or difficult levelling the Van would be, so I had not brought any boards or things to put it on. Luckily there were some flat pieces rock and I got the van levelled with a minimum of hassle. I collected some firewood and presto! the camp was set, so I had time for a short hike up the meadow.

The weather was beautiful ... sunny, yet there were still patches of snow on the ground in shady places. The meadow was lush and alive, and as I walked among the trees I felt I had found someplace truly special. The spot was very private. I only heard one or two cars go by on the main road (not the spur road) in the daytime, and none at night. I had a nice fire to keep me warm. The campfire was shielded from view of the road by a large 10 foot high rock outcropping. It got down to maybe 38 that night, but the Van kept me warm and cozy.

When I got up the next morning, I did a nice hike up the main meadow, over the main road, and up the canyon a short ways to another forest road. Didn't have the GPS yet, so I had to remember where I was, and that limited my travels. I saw some nice Mountain Lion signs and enjoyed the hike, but eventually had to turn back and go back down the way I had come. On the way back I checked out the road paralell to the meadow for a bit. There were forest service work areas (piles of gravel and rock, bulldozed swaths of trees) just above, within 100 feet of the beautiful meadow. I think they might be building a tourist station or something. Anyways, the signs of man vs. nature just a few hundred feet away made the meadow that much more beautiful and serene to experience and fragile to behold.

After a morning meadow hike, I broke camp, hopped back in the van for a drive down into the King River Canyon ...

Continue onto the next page of my Sequoia Trip ..