Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park

     Debbie and I are certainly enjoying our visit to SoCal as MAE likes to call it.  The arrival of Liam makes everyday special, and seeing Ben, Joanne, and Jamo reminds us of how lucky we truly are.  But day after day off 100 + temps can take it's toll, and we decided it was time to find someplace in SoCal that was a little cooler.  After all, it's October.  The temps should be down in the 70's.  We took a trip down to the ocean to cool off, but it didn't seem any cooler.  Jean was out visiting from Pennsylvania, and it was time for us to hit the road for a few days.  Or as we like to say...we're starting to get a little trailer itch!  We had not had the opportunity to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks yet, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  The only obstacle we could see.....was LA traffic.  Believe me, if you can figure a way to avoid LA traffic, take it!
     Sunday morning we headed north which proved to be just fine.

 Traffic was minimal, and we arrived at Three Rivers without any problems.  Monday morning we were up relatively early for us, and after a filling breakfast, we headed for the park just a few miles away.  As usual, Debbie packed a great lunch as we didn't want to waste time looking for a diner.  As it turned out, it's fall up here, and a lot of the park services had closed for the season.  But the big advantage to traveling this time of year is minimal tourists.  Kids are back in school, and it seemed that we had most of the park to ourselves.  We cruised through the entrance after showing the Ranger our America the Beautiful Pass, we soon encountered the historic Indian Head entrance sign.  Since I do enjoy playing tourist, the car was stopped and the camera came out getting our first pictures of the park.

      Continuing along the General's Highway, which was named after the two most famous Giant Sequoia trees, General Sherman and General Grant trees, we soon came upon Tunnel Rock, which created a tunnel until the road was rerouted.  As with most of these pictures, it's hard to appreciate the size of everything without having something to gauge off of.  Some pics will have nothing to gauge from, but believe me, everything is huge!

     And the General's Highway is curvy.....really curvy!  The speed limit is 15 mph, although sometimes it does increase to 25.  I seem to think the altitude at the entrance was around 400 feet. But the real story begins at about 5000 feet, when you start to enter Giant Sequoia country.  So relax on the drive up.  It takes about 40 minutes to work through all the switchbacks and make the climb up.  Our first day was a little rainy, and as we made out way into the clouds, the temperature dropped to a very comfortable 43!

Debbie pulled out her wool sweater, and was just perfect.  The NY polar fleece vests were quite comfortable, and we both smiled as we saw millennials scrambling to find some warmer clothing.  But they looked good, and I'm sure those cell phones must throw off some heat!
     At 6000 feet. we got our first look at the Giant Sequoias as we past through the Four Guardsmen and entered the Giant Forest.

And then there you were.  In a magnificent grove surrounded by massive Giant Sequoias towering hundreds of feet into the air.  It tends to humble you, especially when you realize that they are anywhere between new growth and possibly up to 2500 years old!  

     Here Debbie is holding a pine cone from one of the Sequoias.  As you can see, they seem to be quite well protected from just about anything, not like a typical pine tree cone.  

Back in the 60's, the Forest Service discovered that the groves of Sequoias were not reproducing, and we were to blame.  The forests need fire to start the process.  Fire cleared the underbrush which choked out new seedlings, but it also opened these cones, to allow the seeds to fall out.  A Sequoia seed looks like a single flake of oatmeal when it comes out of the protective cone.  Each cone contains about 200 seeds.  Amazingly, if the seeds are able to germinate, they grow at a tremendously rapid rate, growing to their full height in only 600 years! That's right...600 years.  After that they stop growing up, and start growing around.  Kinda like me! That's why after a few thousand years, you get trees similar to this.

     Up until the 1970's, this area actually included a gas station, a market, a motel, and nearly 100 cabins for all the tourists visiting.  There are minimal services still operating in the parks, but no gas stations, and no motels.  The pollution was just destroying the park, and thankfully the NPS stepped in and closed everything down.  

     Our first day pretty much concluded after our visit to the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world.  

It is not the tallest tree in the world since it stopped growing upwards at about 275 feet.  But each year it continues to increase its diameter, and grows enough new wood to make up a normal sized tree.   The Park Service is not going to let you have an easy time viewing the General Sherman.  Through this path starts the trail down, down, down to the General Sherman.  It's a piece of cake going down, and all the visitors are visiting playfully as they descend the trail and stairs leading to the tree.  The real problem begins when it's time to return to the parking lot. Seems that the trail descends about 1/4 mile down at a pretty good clip.  But you have to factor in the 7000 foot altitude and the thinness of the oxygen.  There are plenty of rest areas for the trip up, and I took advantage of every one of them.  There is good news for those with handicap placards on their vehicles.  There's parking for you about 200 feet from the tree, and a paved trail leading up to it.

     It is truly a massive Sequoia, and actually stands out from other pretty massive trees around it.  The last picture shows its incredible base, stretching out 109 feet at the ground.  These trees have a very shallow root system, and are prone to just falling over.  I'll show some pics of their root system next time.
     We have a few more days to visit these parks, and lots more pictures.  We hope you're enjoying the show!