Our destination was to be one of the legendary national parks in the state of California, Sequoia National Park. This meant a 5 hour drive southeast from San Francisco, first crossing the 3 kilometre Bay Bridge, then through Oakland, before hitting the comparatively rural parts of the state and some long, straight freeways. A highlight of our road trip was stopping in at a roadside Starbucks for a coffee and seeing our cashier dressed in a full Tyrannosaurus rex suit (we had forgotten that it was Halloween!)
We arrived in to the small town of Three Rivers, on the outskirts of the park, just after dark. Here we checked in to our hotel and grabbed a quick bite to eat just down the road. We were only staying in the area for two nights so it was important that we made the most of the following day. The park boasted quite a few sights, but our priority was to see the ancient sequoia forest towards the middle of the park.
We rose early and set off driving the thin and windy road up in to the park. The park itself is enormous. It is around 404,000 acres and like many of the parks we had visited previously, offered some great spots to pull over to admire some incredible panoramic views.
Also, on our way up into the hills we came across an incredibly friendly mule deer buck, who was so intent on eating the grass on the side of the road that he allowed the car to get nearly to touching distance so we could grab some great shots.
Finally we reached an altitude of 6,000 feet or 1,800 metres. Apparently this altitude is perfect conditions for the sequoia trees to grow in and the location of the appropriately named Giant Forest, which is said to contain 5 of the 10 largest trees on earth. It was quite chilly at this altitude and we were very glad that we had come adequately prepared with some cold weather clothing.
We parked at the forest welcome station which was standing amongst a large group of smaller sequoias and started out on foot. We wanted, like most tourists, to visit the famous General Sherman sequoia, reported to be the largest tree in the world. However, rather than drive straight to the adjacent car park we decided to hike the scenic 3.5km Big Trees trail through the forest to get there. This turned out to be a fantastic idea as the scenery along the path was stunning and for nearly all of it we felt like we had the entire forest to ourselves.
At the trailhead was the enormous sentinel sequoia standing at over 78 metres tall and with a circumference of 24 metres. Much to our amazement we read that this tree was only of average size for the species and we could expect to see much bigger further down the trail! Each time we turned a bend in the trail, we were amazed by the sights, with the picturesque huge trees and the brilliant autumn colours of the ground level foliage.
Many of the sequoias were blackened around the trunks by old forest fires or lightning strikes, though in most cases the trees are large and rough enough to survive. We did pass a few fallen sequoias including one that had fallen across the path. This tree was so large that it had had an entire doorway carved through the trunk to allow us to pass through.
After hiking for roughly an hour and a half we reached the General Grant Grove. This area of the forest was home to several huge sequoia groves, with many of them named after famous political and historical figures such as Robert E Lee, John Adams and Roosevelt. Some of the other names are a little more fun and imaginative such as the Grizzly Giant, Three Fingered Jack and the Black Mountain Beauty. The General Grant sequoia is the king of this grove at 81 metres tall!
It wasn't just the single trees that were impressive either, in a couple of places smaller sequoias had grown together in a clump creating another amazing visual. We were feeling well and truly dwarfed by these ancient trees, some of them having reached over 2,500 years old. Again we only saw one or two other people as we did our rounds of the grove making our experience feel even more special.
From General Grant grove we had another small hike to reach the General Sherman tree located in Giant Forest Grove. Along the way we encountered some of the local wildlife with a small herd of deer peacefully grazing in a clearing and a brightly coloured woodpecker noisily going about his business.
We finally reached the Sherman Tree and marvelled at the sheer size. The incredible dimensions of this tree include standing at over 83 metres high with a trunk circumference over 32 metres. This tree is not the tallest in existence, the record is 95 metres (or a 25 story building), nor the widest, but at 1,486 cubic metres it is believed to the largest tree by volume, anywhere in the world. The approximate age of this tree is estimated to be around 2,300 years, again not the oldest, but the perfect growing conditions of the area have allowed it to grow into the famous behemoth it is today.
As large as the trees we had seen on our hike were, it was even more incredible to learn that many sequoias cut down in the 18 and 1900s for the logging trade would have been larger still. Then, after taking a few pictures it was time to head back and compete the second half of our hiking loop.
As we returned back to the welcome centre banks of fog began to roll in through the trees creating quite an eerie effect. As a result of the fog the temperature began to drop, by the time we reached our car it was down into the mid 30s Fahrenheit (approximately 2 degrees Celsius). It was a relief when we hit the road again and turned on our heater as we made the drive back down out of the mountains. As we left the park we drove through a huge flock of wild turkeys who were blocking the road. These turkeys were very different from the Australian variety, looking more like the traditional farm turkey. As we cruised up, the group of around 30 turkeys reluctantly scampered out of our way, gobbling madly at us.
We spent our last night in California back in our hotel and woke the next morning to discover that we still had one final surprise. A major bedbug attack had occurred overnight. A little more bite-marked and itchier than when we arrived, we returned to San Francisco airport to catch the flight to our final USA destination, Seattle.
Adrian.
Wow wow wow ,those photos .I can only imagine what it was like to see in real life mum xx
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