Days 32 & 33

The spectacular ocean views never get tiresome. We took the long, winding Pacific Coast Highway south as long as we could, catching odd glimpses of sea lions and otters along the way. We passed through Monterey and Carmel, the latter of which was pretty but much too fancy for my tastes.

Eventually we had to leave the ocean and cut east toward the scorching desert, although there were lots of wineries to keep our eyes distracted and a midstate fair in Paso Robles that I longed to go to; Jun did not.

Instead of making it through the Sequoia National Forest and on to Death Valley for sunset the following day as we had planned, we spent several hours in Midas getting our brakes fixed. The miles of windy, seaside roads and mountain paths that we had gone through surely were to blame.

To fight the heat, we found a little watering hole near the forest and joined the locals for a quick swim, then headed toward the sacred sequoia. Honestly, they looked just like the redwoods we had encountered earlier in the trip, although the bark patterns were kind of fascinating.

As we turned through the mountain roads, we saw smoke, then smelt it, then bizarrely gaught a glimpse of flames flickering in the forest. It was a small but scary forest fire near the Trail of a Hundred Giants, and as we drove right past it I felt the heat on my face and saw the firefighters working to contain it.

The rising temps were good practice for Death Valley, which awaited us in the morning.