Sequoia National Park

"The Big Tree (Sequoia gigantea) is Nature's forest masterpiece, and, so far as I know, the greatest of living things.”

- John Muir, 1901

Referring of course, to the giant Sequoia, now only found (naturally) in a few groves in the Sierra Nevada of California. To see one in person is to step outside of time and travel back into prehistory -- to when dinosaurs roamed the earth. They are giants, and their presence is the somber quiet of something that has stood for 3,000 years.

I've read quite a few pieces of John Muir's writing, and started reading My First Summer in the Sierra while I was here, which is a delightful diary of when Muir signed on as a sheepherder as an excuse to get up into the mountains. We also just visited his home outside of San Francisco, which was a beautiful 17 room Italianate mansion. Apparently he made a small fortune after marrying into a fruit rancher's family and took up the family business.

It's very hard to convey the sense of wonder and delight, and pure I-invented-a-bed-that-would-tip-me-out-in-the-morning-because-I'm-so-excited-to-start-the-day ENTHUSIASM that this man put on paper about his experiences in nature. It was as if he never lost his childhood sense of wonder. Or, a mild case of synesthesia.

This was the first park on this trip that we had visited before -- back in 2015. We had driven up from Los Angeles for the day and taken the General's Highway through both Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks. It was a long day, and we saw a lot. I thought we had gotten a pretty good taste of both but it turns out we had barely scratched the surface. We now had a leisurely five nights here, and were able to see quite a bit more (and a lot more than just sequoias).

Our first stop would be the Foothills area, approaching from the south. I viscerally remembered the winding road from our first trip -- it was 15 minutes down or 30 minutes up before the road would straighten out... We arrived at our campground, Buckeye Flat (no topography nearby could be considered flat or even gently sloped...??) and was pleased to see we had a pretty nice campsite. It had a nice level tent pad, and wasn’t real close to the neighbors. I was surprised that there were mosquitos out and not surprised that there was absolutely zero cellular reception.

The campground was near the confluence of the middle fork of the Kaweah River and Paradise Creek, and after setting up camp we eagerly went to inspect in the pursuit of dinner. The water was swift and cold, seemingly devoid of fish, and as we gazed out across the idyllic scene I got a nosebleed.

Vitali came to my rescue and ran up the hill to get tissues and apparently almost wiped out running back down. Yay for avoiding a trip to the doctor! I had had a nosebleed a few weeks prior but it had stopped within a few minutes. This one lasted a long time but eventually stopped, with only minor blood loss.

The next day, I resolved to get caught up on blog posts and editing, since I was multiple parks behind (as I am again...) so we drove back down to the Foothills Visitor Center and parked our butts on a bench while I worked through the backlog.

On the way back we stopped by the marble fork of the Kaweah River, where we encountered a rattlesnake! We would go on to see multiple snakes here, as well as a BOBCAT! A nearby squirrel sounded the alarm for 10 minutes after the bobcat had been spotted.

Numa & Vitali & some Dude at the Tunnel Log.

On the way back to camp we stopped at Hospital Rock, which was right by our campground. I was expecting a big flat rock on which to operate but instead it was a sacred area sheltered by a boulder, where the Potwisha had dwelled 600 years ago. It got it's name when a nearby trapper was shot and the locals helped fix him up.

We hiked a few miles of the High Sierra Trail too, which had beautiful views of the surrounding peaks, and we spent some time enjoying the meadows on the way back.

Sequoia like to grow along the edges of meadows, and there is no greater joy to be found than gazing across one in the morning light. It turns out about every 3,000 years the climate changes enough that it kills the trees -- meadows will dry up, or get wetter, and the trees will fall over.

Their roots frequently only penetrate 3 feet into the ground, but can spread horizontally for hundreds. If they are growing close to neighbors, they can merge their root networks and the trunks may eventually even grow together, if they are close enough. They are also extraordinarily resistant to fire -- due to extremely thick bark (sometimes up to 3 feet) which has almost no resin.

We also hiked up Moro Rock, 350 steps to the top of a great granite dome which had spectacular views.

On Thursday we drove down to the Kaweah Resevoir and attempted to fish again. There was no shade, except for the shade cast by a nearby pile of rocks. We walked towards it, and immediately encountered another rattlesnake. Nevermind...

No fish were had although they were jumping and the guy nearby had caught five. We stopped at a small brewery on the way back, the first beers out in public since the pandemic.

On Friday, we started early with the Big Trees Loop around Round Meadow, the finest example of the sequoia-meadow relationship in the park (according to the sign).

After that, we went to see General Sherman again (the largest living tree in the world by volume), and wandered around the grove, which has an extensive trail network. There was a beautiful quote on the trailhead sign -- but I didn't take a picture and can't find the quote on the internet -- basically: You are about to enter the greatest forest in the world -- do not leave until you have walked amongst it. We didn't explore much of it when we were here the first time, and I'm glad we took the time now.

The forest was beautiful, incredible, awe-inspiring, full of light and life. This area included stands of sequoia named after our government -- the House, the Senate, The President tree. There was also a Chief Sequoya tree, overlooking all the others. The feeling of walking among these living things is sublime.

After lunch, we hiked to Tokopah Falls, which was also spectacular. If everything is spectacular, do things cease to be special?

The answer is no, they don't cease to be special. I like to go do things without researching them because sometimes, the surprise and reward is great. Beautiful cascades, it must have been hundreds of feet into a deep pool, into which Vitali jumped! I was surprised to see but all of the California parks are basically swimming allowed unless otherwise noted.

On Saturday, we'd drive up to our next campsite inside King's Canyon, but would drop by a few places along the way first. We stopped at Redwood Canyon, where we hiked part of the Hart Trail, which had a few nice stands of sequoia.

We were in an area with a lot of glacially deposited boulders when all of a sudden we heard a crash in the bushes -- we stopped and said "Hello Bear?" and sure enough, we saw a small bear scampering away. We started making a lot of noise and got up on top of a large defensible rock, in case the momma bear was nearby. After a few minutes of not seeing or hearing anything we got down and continued hiking... but we were spooked. At this point in time, I thought there were brown bears in these mountains, so I was a little worried about a mauling. After a quarter mile we stopped and decided to turn around... only after the fact did I learn that these are plain old black bears. Oh well!

I ended up with hundreds of pictures in this park, mostly of the bottom 15' of tree trunks. Even though this park is named after it's primary inhabitant -- the Sequoia -- I was surprised by how many other wonderful things were in the park. Views to high peaks, waterfalls, and rivers.

This ended up overtaking Arches as Vitali's favorite national park, and briefly moved to #1 on my list too. I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees! I fell in love with them. Vitali was sick of them by the time we left but I found myself trying to fit in one more visit to a grove, whenever the opportunity presented itself.