Oohing and awing our way through Southern California

Here are snapshots from our last few days as we drove from the Imperial Valley to Sequoia National Park and coming and going through the foothills. In only a handful of days we basked in the ups and downs of elevation. The hot dry of the Central Valley turned to the cool wet of the foothills and then the cold snow of the mountains and back to the cool wet of the foothills and then orchards. We experienced every condition. Wind. Hail. Lightening. Clouds. Clear. Rain. Snow. Sun. Cold. Hot. Wet. Dry. Calm. Wild.

The contrasts were astonishing! Ed and I oohed and awed all along the way. California's beauty as well as memory-filled destinations from my childhood played with my mind and heart.

From the Central Valley…

To our campsite at Lake Isabelle, on Highway 178…

Unfolding to the rolling foothills on Highway 155…

Leading to a campground up Highway 56 and the California Hot Springs...

Then dropping back into the valley and orchard beauty….

Before heading up in elevation again, continuing through the foothills to Sequoia…

                          


Up, up to 7,000 feet with mountain and distance views unfolding…

                           

                         

Arriving, after having our socks blown off by the drama of nature, at Azalea Campground in Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park…and the big ones...

Running from snow and another storm, we head back down the mountain from Sequoia to Horse Creek Campground on Lake Kaleah…

The beauty of California cannot be underestimated. We stuck to the smaller scenic highways, mostly avoiding freeways, while maintaining our peace and sanity.

~~~

"We can only climb the mountains because there's a valley that makes the mountain a mountain."

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

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