Having been home from Alaska for two full months, our travel feet were itchy for an adventure.
And having been inspired by Ken Burn’s PBS series on the National Parks (we did watch the whole series), it seemed time to return to a “local National Park”, the second oldest in the country: Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks.
We got up at 3am on Friday morning, bleary eyed but ready to beat the Los Angeles traffic heading north, which we did. We drove by downtown LA at 5am, still surprised to see the number of cars out at that time. Our minivan was set up just like we were going to Alaska, with our bed in the back ready for Patti to crawl in and sleep the first three hours while Dick drove. We switched just north of Bakersfield CA and Dick took a quick nap. We pulled into the park entrance at 9:00 and picked out a campsite by 10. We were ready to be with the big trees.
Dick’s first time in the park was in 1965, so he was reflective on the changes that he had seen over the intervening years. They have now restored the park to a more natural setting. This park was one that was in danger of being “loved to death”, with cabins and stores being built literally on the top of Sequoia shallow root systems.
We spent Friday mid-day with a picnic lunch near the Giant Grove with the General Sherman tree nearby, and then spent the next couple of hours hiking among the trees. Walking among the big trees is certainly an experience of being in a vertical world. The sheer mass of the sequoias distorted our sense of perspective. Limbs that looked close were actually over 100 feet up. The really big trees are referred to as monarchs, averaging over 250 feet tall and over 10 feet in diameter. General Sherman is 36 ft in diameter at its base and still 14 feet in diameter up 180 feet. That is a big tree trunk! It is the most massive living thing on earth. The feeling as we walked among these trees was like being in an immense, peaceful, natural cathedral.
Then we had a lovely walk along Crescent Meadow and saw beautiful aspen trees ablaze in fall colors. Of course, we got out our cameras and shot many photos (we each took about 400 photos in the two days.)
The short night caught up with us and we were back at our campsite, cooked and ate dinner, and went to bed by 7pm. Sleeping in the min-van continues to be a good plan, especially when we got up to frost some places on the ground.
Saturday October 31st…neither of us had ever spent Halloween camping before, but is was a picture perfect fall day.
We went to The General Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and both thought it was such a lovely grove of giant sequoias. There was one big tree after another, many in groups. We had the chance to watch a herd of mule deer for a long time, feeding among the big trees. We shared the moment with a family from Japan.
We were struck again about how truly huge these trees really are. The interpretive writers were obviously struggling with the challenge of communicating this size. The trunk of the General Grant tree was described as having the volume equal to that of millions of ping pong balls. They are as tall as a 27-story building, taller than the Statue of Liberty. Redwood trees are taller, but mass-wise, these are the largest growing thing s on the planet. And they live for 2-3000 years!
We descended down into Kings Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the country. Down, down we went, descending over 5000 feet. Lunch was a picnic beside Grizzly Falls, a charming waterfalls surround by fall colors. The canyon became more impressive the deeper into it we drove. John Muir wrote that this valley, at the bottom, was even grander than his beloved Yosemite Valley.
At Road’s End, just a few miles into the national park, we parked and then followed a delightful trail 2 miles to a fork in the valley. This valley and trail were so peaceful, so inspiring. We were alternating between deep forest and meadows, always surrounded by steep cliffs on either side. By mid-afternoon, the shadows were quickly lengthening, and we realized we needed to leave this magical pace and get back to our car and then campsite. The drive back was stunning again, including the sun setting over the foothills and the Central Valley while on the otherwise the nearly full moon was rising shining above the tress and the mountains. Wow!
Dinner was made after dark, with light provided by a battery and our plug in jack-o-lantern. Halloween was properly celebrated by a hooting of a genuine owl over the course of the evening. We spent several hours talking and snuggling by the campfire, until we reluctantly went to bed, having burned nearly all of our wood as the temperature dropped to nearly freezing!
Morning brought another perfect day, but we had to pack up and leave. Why? Because we had to get home to go to a marvelous concert in San Diego’s Symphony Hall. It was a special concert of Mariachi Music to commemorate the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos or All Souls' Day. It is a wonderful time to feel closer to those who have passed away. We so appreciate learning how other cultures respond to these important life experiences.
The adventure continues
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