Picking up where we left off in Santa Barbara, we had a lovely local coffee and then headed off to LA. We felt we needed to at least be able to say yes we have seen it. The plan was to see the Hollywood sign, the Beverley Hills sign, the La Brea tar pits and museum, the end of route 66, Venice beech and canals…….and the house that Uncle Phil lived in, in Fresh Prince of Bel Air 🙂.

We saw the Hollywood sign from the park where you are supposed to go, fine. We saw the Beverley Hills sign at the entry to the neighbourhood, fine. The La Brea tar pits and museum are all closed for a re-vamp 🙄, not fine. The end of Route 66 is actually a busy crossroads, with the official sign moved to a pier that you have to pay to go on, not fine 😠. The Venice canals and the general area are nice, it isn’t Venice but it’s quaint for the US. Venice beach is a s*** hole 🤮. The house that Uncle Phil lived in now has 30ft high hedges and 20ft high solid gates to prevent morons like us from taking photos, booooo 😒. Otherwise LA is a busy, sprawling, concrete mess of a city that is not at all appealing. So, in summary, unless you have a pressing reason for going there, don’t.

The following day we spent a lovely morning hiking in the Santa Barbara hills, and the afternoon exploring the town. It is an old, quaint place with a lot of Mexican history. The main street is part pedestrianised and busy with bars, restaurants and plenty of chilled people. The weather remained nice as well, not too hot, so it was a good day.

We left for Kings Canyon the following morning and travelled up the coast on Route 1 to drive the Big Sur. This is a truly lovely drive. It winds it’s way up the coast clinging to the cliffs for about 90 miles, with beautiful views the entire time. There is a distinct lack of concrete, replaced by beaches, coves, headlands and Elephant seals 🦭. The scenery is a cross between the North Cornish coast and the North Devon coast, if they were on the Pacific rather than looking at Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. Definitely worth doing.

We then turned inland and headed back to the mountains and Kings Canyon. For those that don’t know, this is where the Sequoias and Giant Redwoods are, as well as being a spectacular mountain area. We had stayed here on our Honeymoon for a few days, so it was nice to re-visit. The trees and mountains remain spectacular, beautiful, awe inspiring, wonderful etc., as did the weather, and at this time of the year it is easy to get away from people if you walk more than 100 yards 🙂👍. There remains no TVs, but there is now some mobile signal and wifi. The restaurant did have more than 4 choices, which is what it had 21 years ago, but not many more 🙂.

Unfortunately, we were staying in some cabins and were informed after day 1 that they would have no electric for the remainder of our stay. Something to do with health and safety gone mad due to a light breeze! We debated staying anyway, but then the door lock on our cabin fell apart so we asked for a refund and left feeling a little deflated 😔. We are currently staying out of the park at a hotel. We did however travel back in today to enjoy a slightly restricted but still good day of hiking and sight seeing. Still no bears.

Tomorrow we head to Yosemite for more amazing scenery.