A Walk Among Giants - Park #11
We knew today was going to be a big day! We definitely did not get to see enough of Sequoia National Park the day before to be satisfied after coming this far (not one Giant Sequoia tree!) and then there was King's Canyon National Park right next door that had to be explored as well.
So we decided to get up and on the road early at 5:30 a.m. because our next night's stay would be in Yosemite, another several hour drive. And we had so much we wanted to explore yet from these two parks.
I realized that if you look at a map the area that we actually have access to in these two national parks is so small compared to the size of each of them. But within that small area, the driving is so spread out that it takes hours to get from one end to another.
After our crazy hairpin curve drive the day before we decided to drive in from the west on 180 which was a spectacular way to go as we hugged the edge of the mountain. We had to stop at least once to take some photos it was so beautiful.
And then as we rounded the curve it happened, there they finally were... Sequoia trees! Massively thick around making ordinary trees look like toothpicks! We parked and got out to get an up close look. It was truly amazing. I was humbled by how small I seemed next to it.
First reaction? You struggle to say something other than, "Wow!". Yes, I hugged a tree, but then another shock, the texture of it. It was fiberous and sort of soft with an almost hollow feel to it. So different from the Ponderosa trees in Flagstaff, and so not what I was expecting.
We didn't stay long as our goal was to get to the Giant Forest. We heard parking is hard to come by unless you get there early and we didn't want to miss the General Sherman, the world's largest living tree. Getting up early definitely paid off, we found a spot to park and decided walk the loop around the Sequoia Groves first.
We spent a LOT of time taking pictures in front of a tree that we THOUGHT was General Sherman only to realize that tree was actually in the background of most of our shots as it was just around the corner. Some facts to share the General Sherman Tree is the largest by volume. It stands 275 feet (83 m) tall, and is over 36 feet (11 m) in diameter at the base.
After the loop we took the most amazing hike ever through the Giants forest. At first there were other people hiking around us and they were sometimes loud and distracting, but as we kept walking we eventually found ourselves alone surrounded by just the trees and animals. It was nothing short of magical.
Giant sequoias grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California, between 4,000 and 8,000 feet (1219 and 2438 m) in elevation. We also discovered that many of the larger sequoia trees are named for past Presidents. We found the McKinley, Washington, and Lincoln trees. We were curious as to why so many of the sequoia trees appeared burned. Apparently, sequoia trees cannot release their seeds unless fire is involved, but that really interesting fiberous trunk protects the tree from burning to the ground. So cool, right?
Okay, time was ticking and we decided to head over to King's Canyon, but what happened next was nothing short of amazing. Check out my next post to find out the details.