The Giant Forest

The start of Day 2 reminded us that regardless of the heat in the San Joaquin valley, the Sierras are the Sierras and they are cold. It dropped into the high 30's that night, but we woke up ready to start exploring Sequoia National Park. After breaking down the tent and packing up the car, we went back down the General's Highway and drove through the famed Tunnel Tree on ourway to the Crescent Meadow Trail.

We reached the Crescent Meadow Trail and finally got out of the car to start exploring on foot. The forest here was was so interesting. In general, it's not dissimilar to Tahoe or anywhere else in the Sierras with all of these redwood and pine and other conifer trees. But every now and then you run into one of the absolutely massive sequoias. They're not uniquely tall -- in fact they seem to be the same height as the redwoods and other trees in the area. But their trunks are thick and dead straight with branches only very high up. They look like Greek columns. And the bark isn't bark like a 'normal' tree -- it's fibrous and more like a palm tree. Apparently, that's what helps them survive insects and fire and live for thousands of years. And they are only native on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada.

There were two major stops on the Crescent Meadow trail -- Thorp's Log and Chimney Tree. One of the first white settlers in the Sequoia, Thorp decided to skip the hassle of building a house and instead hollowed out a felled sequoia. It's not a bad cabin for the 1860's, although I think it would get a bit cramped after a few days.

Second stop was Chimney Tree which had been hollowed out by a forest fire and is almost a tailor-made photo opp.

After a quick snack, we went next to climb Moro Rock. Moro is a granite monolith -- not unlike the ones in Yosemite Valley -- that stands guard over the entrance to Sequoia. We actually saw it driving up the day before, but had no idea we would be climbing to the top. The hike at Moro wasn't so much a hike as an exhausting 400 step staircase carved into the rock. Step after step after step. But with the way it's perched over the valley, you have these unobstructed and spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The picture below is only about halfway up the climb while the video is from the very top.

The last stop was to the General Sherman tree -- the largest tree in the world. It has a circumference of 100 feet, has a branch that's 7 feet in diameter, and is 2,100 years old. This tree was a sapling when Julius Ceaser ruled Rome. And it has sood through Magna Carta and Crusades and Columbus and the Cubs winning the World Series. Pretty remarkable.

After a late lunch at the Lodgepole Visitor Center, we hit the road again bound for Kings Canyon National Park with continuing service to Yosemite. After a quick stop at Fresno State's Bulldog Stadium (my 7th of 7 NCAA D-1 football stadiums to visit in California), we hit Yosemite in the late afternoon. Although our campsite was out the Tioga Pass in the Inyo National Forest to the east of the park itself, the road required a brief loop through the Yosemite Valley as an appetizer for Day 3.

We hit our campsite at Oh Ridge after dark and heated up a quick dinner before heading to bed, ready to go back and see more of Yosemite Valley on Day 3.