About a fortnight ago I posted a story on our journey through the Giant Sequoias. That story came from the southern forests of the GS National Monument. This post is about Sequoia National Park, a different location in the same mountain range and State (California). To clear up the confusion the first photo is the map we got from the Ranger Station there.
An Uphill Road
The next photo is of Lake Kaweah (bottom left of the map) as we passed by up through the Foothills Visitor Centre to our target, The General Sherman Tree. I have included a couple of GPS photos to give you an indication of some of the road conditions as well as photos of the trip up to the National Park. There were some interesting things to look at on the trip like Tunnel Rock, the ancient native pictographs, the ‘native kitchen’ with holes in the rock where corn and seeds were ground and of course some wildlife.
Can You See the Trees in the Forest?
The rest of the road from there was windy, steep and narrow but as we crossed into the forest zone it was evident that this is somewhere special. First thing we came to was Auto Log. No, its not an Automatic Log nor a place to record your trip. It is a huge tree that fell over 100 years ago and has been used as somewhere to park your car ever since. It really is gigantic. From this point we saw many massive trees that just took your breath away. To illustrate how big these plants can grow there is one you can drive under called the Tunnel Log.
The General Sherman Tree
Eventually we made it to the ‘Big Red One’. Not General George Paton but the General Sherman Tree. We had come from an elevation of 200mtrs at the lake to over 2000mtrs here. This is one huge tree! I have included some of the signage (apologies for the glare but that’s how it was) for you to read about its history and its size. The tree is 275 feet (84 mtrs) high, 36.5feet (11mtrs) across the base and weighs 1385 tons (1256 Metric tons) and it is estimated at 2200 years old. To stand in front of it is awe inspiring. Take a look at the photo of the pavers on the track (after the selfie of Shane and I). That is a life size recreation of the base of the tree just above the ground.
Deer Deer Me
On the walk back up the track to the carpark we noticed 4 deer that had wandered to the edge of the path and were chomping on the lichen and moss on the fallen trees. These are wild deer that have no fear of humans because they live in a protected area. Once in the car we started our drive home but we decided to continue in a loop up to Grant Grove Village then back to Kingsburg where we were residing. It was another section of forest road that had beautiful scenery but not everyone has a successful journey as you can see by the wreck that had happened a few hours before we got there. As the sun set we made it back to our van exhausted but happy to have seen what was reputed to be the oldest single living organism on the planet. The last half a dozen shots are the trip back to San Diego for an exciting event.
Cheers for now and keep reading. Next comes Top Gun School and the biggest airshow in the USA.
Garry & Shane
P.S. Forgot the pics in the first posting. Gallery inserted now.