Road Trip Chronicles-Day 5 Part II

Hume, CA ➡️ Bend, CA (Approx. 5 hours of driving)

Destination: Sequoia National Park

Unceded land of: The Mono (Monache), Yokuts, Tübatulabal, Paiute, & Western Shoshone

Stayed: Hanning Flat Dispersed Area

This is the drive, through Southern California, that I fantasize about or go to in my mind when I need a moment of bliss. I can vividly see the tall yellow dried grassy hills and all this open land and not a cloud in the sky while hearing the sweet sounds of Jon Anderson (Lead singer of the band Yes) making all my senses come alive.

At the Hanning Flat entrance

When I arrived to the dispersed site, Hanning Flat, it was truly that, a vast desertous area with no clear indication of where previous people might have camped. The only thing that made me feel confident I could set up camp here was a wooden sign posted that literally said, you can only stay here 14 days.

I followed a dirt road path and chose the best spot I thought my car could park. I felt pretty nervous to be the only person there. Now, I look back and can't believe how special it was to have that whole area to myself.

There was a body of water (Lake Isabella) nearby that I saw on my drive down. I tried to walk to the water, but the sun was setting and something told me that if I was walking around the desert at night it could lead to maybe some unfortunate happenings (mostly, a fear of snakes prevailed here).

So, I ended up having a little silent dance session with the most amazing nature backdrop. But, I am not the only dance star in this video, a fly made a guest appearance showing me up.

Shameless Golden Hour Selfie

I also took some pretty great selfies during the ever illustrious *Golden Hour*. I love this photo of myself.

Let me tell you, it gets very windy in the desert. I looked up why that is and found this statement to make the most sense to me: "Air near the surface [in a desert] is heated and rises, cooler air comes in to replace hot rising air and this movement of air results in winds" (Source).

I was struggling to keep a flame on my stove to make dinner, things were blowing over and toppling. And when I decided to sleep, the rain fly (the part that goes over the tent like a tarp), was flapping so intently that I gave up trying to deal with it and I slept with it removed.

Campsite set up at Hanning Flat

Mind you, my tent without the rain fly was all screen. This was the most exposed I had ever slept. On top of that to be literally sleeping in the middle of a desert, I was freaking out. It took a lot of deep breathing and listening to an audiobook to eventually lull me into some semblance of sleep.

Of course, it was beautiful and when I think back I can recall how stark the night sky was. But, I also recall feeling petrified that a coyote was going to happen upon my site and I was going to wake up looking into their eyes looking at me.

Needless to say, I did not sleep all that much and my desert days were all early starts (3-4am each day) to avoid being stuck in hazardous heat. This was another packing up in full dark experience. And then I was off to my drive to the Mojave National Preserve.

Video below of me driving out of Hanning Flat