We have spent the last 5 days in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  It is a place where one truly feels small - in a good way - while walking among some of the worlds largest living things and viewing the wild Kings River.  The GIANT Sequoia trees are incredible masterpieces created by nature.  We first viewed the Sequoia groves in the early morning mist and it was just awe-inspiring.  We covered all of the highlights in the parks and did several wonderful hikes.
Some of the sights we enjoyed:

·       The Giant Forest,  which was so-named by John Muir, the famous conservationist, who was so impressed by the sheer beauty of this area, he often compared it's similarity to the phenomenal terrain of Yosemite.  In The Giant Forest we saw beautiful meadows, complete with several bears, recently appearing from their winter hibernation and grazing on the tender shoots of sledge.  We viewed the cinnamon-colored Sequoias, members of the redwood family, just as Muir found them, "Giants grouped in pure temple groves, or arranged in colonnades along the sides of the meadows".  Among these majestic trees stands The General Sherman, the LARGEST tree in the world.  While neither the tallest nor the widest, it is considered the largest living tree in the world because of its volume.  It weighs approximately 2.7 million pounds, has a height of 275 feet,  a circumference of 103 feet and is estimated to be 2,200 years old!  We also drove through Tunnel Log, saw Hospital Rock and picnicked at Crescent Meadow which John Muir called “a lovely, grassy, open area which is the gem of the Sierra”.

·       We spent a great day driving up to Mineral King.  We were very fortunate because the 25-mile winding road had just re-opened from the winter snows the day before.  Actually, at one point we had to wait while the snow plow finished digging up some remaining snow.   A quote in a journal we were reading before we went, read as follows when describing this remote subalpine world: "For those who find comfort in numbers: there are 698 curves on the 25-mile road from Three Rivers to Mineral King in southern Sequoia National Park.  Our family clearly was flirting with danger on 1 1/2 lane-wide Mineral King Road, part paved, part potholed and more kinked than a Slinky.  By the time we completed the drive to this 7,800-foot-high mountain oasis I was exhausted from pushing the passenger-side brake pedal.  But sometimes a place that takes some effort to reach is all the sweeter".  This absolutely explains our experience except we didn’t really count the number of curves, though we agree it was a LOT, and Judy says she only hit the passenger-side brake pedal once. It was, however, DEFINITELY worth the effort. J  As an aside, while at Mineral King we had an “interesting” showdown with the marmots.  What, you ask, could we have against the cute little furry animals?  (You’ll see a picture of one in the attached photos)  The problem is that these seemingly harmless little guys are EXTREMELY destructive.  They will chew just about anything but seem to be quite fond of automobile insulation, wiring, belts and even brake lines.  They have been known to completely disable a car in just a couple hours.  To lend credence to this reputation the Ranger showed us the underside of the hood where the heat insulation was completely shredded!  But, they’re SO CUTE…

·       Grant Grove is another fascinating area of the park where we viewed the General Grant Tree named for the leader of the Union Forces during what Judy prefers to call “the war of Northern aggression”.  The General Grant is the world’s third largest living thing.  It has a base diameter of 40.3 feet, however, due to its tapering trunk, it is not considered as large as the previously mentioned General Sherman Tree.  In Grant Grove we also viewed several other trees such as the California Tree, the Tennessee Tree, the Lincoln Tree and several other sequoias of significant size and notoriety.  We also viewed the Fallen Monarch which fell centuries ago but because of the resistant composition of a sequoia, has experienced very little decay.  Over the years the Fallen Monarch has served many uses.  It has been used as a living space by the Gamlin brothers as they built their cabin, as a hotel and saloon, as a stable for the horses of the U.S. Cavalry and as a home for the Native Americans who inhabited this area for hundreds of years.

·       We were also fortunate to be able to drive to the easternmost portion of Kings Canyon all the way to Road’s End.  Fortunate in that the road, like the road to Mineral King, had just re-opened after heavy winter snows.  Due to an unusually high snow accumulation this past winter, all of the rivers and waterfalls are running at extremely high and ferocious levels.  We enjoyed several falls, especially Grizzly Falls and Roaring Rapids, which both were phenomenally powerful.  John Muir compared the glacial canyon of  Kings Canyon as “A rival to the Yosemite”.  The Kings River is an awesome sight to behold with the white water rushing between the granite canyon walls.  At one spot the granite cliffs rise 8,000 feet from river to ridge.  At this point it is actually thousands of feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.

This, again, is just a snippet of some of the many wonderful sights that we
have seen. The sheer beauty of the trees of Sequoia and Kings Canyon is
humbling.
We especially like a quote that we read from Dennis Woods that says “Big
trees are just little trees that don’t give up” . We are glad the GIANT
sequoias have not given up!


The link for some pictures is


http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Sbs27hoxZMra

From here we’re off to Yosemite for a week.


Take care and stay safe,


Pat & Judy