Wednesday, 10/5 - Sequoia National Park

 Generals Highway



Today, we toured Sequoia National Park.  Kings Canyon and Sequoia are adjacent to each other in the eastern part of the park (in the Sierras and the wilderness area).  But the Sequoia National Forest separates the two on the west side.  So, we drove about 20 miles through the forest before we got to the park.

We really had not seen that much evidence of the forest fires from last year, until this drive.  And interestingly enough, almost all of the fire damage along the road was in the park, not in the forest.  The NPS estimates that 20% of the Sequoias that had a diameter of 4 feet or larger were destroyed or severely damaged.  Which is amazing by itself, because Sequoia's are naturally fire resistant....




We drove mostly through the park to the Giant Forest Museum and took the Big Trees Trail.  It was a nature trail with a lot of very good information about the environment in which Sequoias thrive.  Lots and lots of very big trees...




The museum was interesting.  I found the video of the history of the park the most interesting.  It talked about how in the beginning the park was overused in this area and the park service has been trying to rehabilitate the area.  There used to be a hotel with a dining room and horse stables and everything else.  And it all has been moved (over the last 50 years) into different areas of the park.  They also talked about the lumbering that went on, with no real use for the huge logs (rumor has it that some were actually used to make toothpicks).

We headed back up the road to the General Sherman Tree - the largest sequoia in the world (when measuring volume).  That was an interesting experience.  The tree is not that far from the "General's Highway" - the main road through the park.  But, evidently there was so much congestion that they relocated the main parking lot to the east of the tree, about a quarter mile from the tree, but about 250 feet above it. 



So, it is a pretty good little hike down to the tree and back up.  Especially at altitude and in the heat.....

Then we headed back and had another picnic/happy hour at the lodge.


Link to next post:  10/6 - Enroute to Joshua Tree

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