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Sequoia National Park

The next stop was Sequoia National Park on our way back to the Bay Area. We reached the park too late to even get in and find a camp, so we stayed at a private campsite a few miles outside the park. We were rewarded with beautiful stars and a view of the pretty valley when we woke up in the morning.

With only half a day to spare we picked carefully what to see and which trail to do to maximize our time. First we stopped to climb Moro Rock by a rock stairway from a small parking lot. The climb could have been very rewarding had the air pollution here from Central Valley not reduced the visibility. Still it was a great view around. Then we drove to General Sherman's Tree, believed the largest living organism in the world. It is actually an extra large specimen of the giant sequoia that characterizes this park. We were planning to follow the hugely populated paved Congress Trail to a less traveled path (Trail of the Sequoias) and do a nice hike around it. But when we got there, it turned out to be closed due to prescribed fire in the area. So we mapped out an alternate route that would allowed us to see the same places. That too turned out to be closed. In the end we wound our way back and forth through this trail and that, and it was great! The giant sequoias are really

impressive, whether standing up or fallen with their giant web of shallow roots sticking up. The area is also dotted with a number of quaint blooming meadows. We saw several groundhogs (we think) and someone told us there was a bear in the vicinity. We did not see it, but a little cub crossed the road ahead of us as we were driving out of the park. The Sequoia NP stop was definitely a great respite from the hot desert environment of the Utah parks. All in all, we hiked almost 50 miles this week.

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