Sequoia & King’s Canyon National Parks June 4 – June 11, 2014
On Wednesday June 4 we arrived at Sequoia National
Park. It was about a 2 hr trip up the
mountain on steep grades and twisty,
winding roads. We have site 197 in
Lodgepole Campground, the only pull-thru in the Park. We drove around the loop so that we were
facing toward the exit and also so that our living room windows faced the
campground and not the road. We got set
up, and another surprise – there was a water spigot almost in our site to use
to refill our water if needed.
It is a very pretty setting but the downside is that there
are no hook-ups so we have to conserve our battery (no lights at night so that
we can have heat) and water tanks (limited use of water for dishes, and taking shower at the campground
showers). We have headlamps that we used
for reading after dark.
Also, no cell phone service or internet.
Just like the old days.
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| Sequoia National Park Lodgepole Campground Site 197 |
We used the free shuttles to get around the Park. There was a shuttle stop right at the end of
our CG loop. There were 4 shuttle routes
so we had to learn what route went to what area of the Park and when to change
shuttles to get where we wanted to go.
One of the first things we went to see was the General
Sherman tree. It is a huge Sequoia tree,
the largest living thing in the world. The
Ranger said it is about 2,700 years old.
Sequoias start from a seed about the size of an oatmeal flake, that comes
from a cone about the size of a chicken egg. This tree is 36 ft in diameter and
about 300 ft tall.
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| Cone from a Sequoia tree |
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| The General Sherman Tree, largest living thing on earth. |
We also hiked up to the Tokapa Falls, about 1.7 miles. The trailhead was nearthe entrance of our
campground loop. It took us a couple
hours because we stopped often to take pictures. At the top was a beautiful waterfall. Near the last section of the hike we talked
to some people coming down and they told us that it was worth the walk, but the
mosquitos were terrible. We only
encountered a couple mosquitos, nothing like we were expecting. The people we spoke to must not have been
from Michigan! At the top we did see a
couple yellow bellied Marmots.
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| Tokapa Falls |
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| Yellow Bellied Marmot |
On Sunday we worshipped at the Lodgepole Ampitheater.
A group of college students from the Christian Ministry in the National
Parks organization led the service. It
was great to worship outside. There were
only about a dozen or people there (including a couple from Walker MI) but it
was nice. Afterward we took the shuttle
to Moro Rock. We climbed to the top (364
steps, about ¼ mile) and looked over the whole area of mountains, forests, and
valleys. We also saw the Tunnel Tree.
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| Climbing stairs at Moro Rock |
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| View from Moro Rock |
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| At the top of Moro Rock |
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| The Tunnel Tree at Sequoia Natl Park |
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| Fallen Sequoia tree that we walked across. |
We then took the shuttle over to Crescent Meadows and made a
hike that lasted about 3 hrs. We saw a
fallen Sequoia that we were able to walk out on. We also went to Tharp’s Log, a cabin built
into a fallen tree. Tharp was the
original owner of the Giant Forest and refused to sell to lumbermen, thus
saving the Sequoia trees that are now part of the Park.
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| Tharp's Log |
We also saw a warning that everyone should take very seriously!
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| Good warning to heed! |
Tuesday we were back at Sequoia and hiked in Crescent
Meadows again and branched off to a small part of the High Sierra Trail, which
if you take the whole thing you go up to Mt Whitney. We just went about a mile, as far as Eagle
View. It again was an area with great views where you could see forever,
including looking down on Moro Rock that we had hiked up to earlier.
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| Moro Rock as seen from Eagle View |
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| View from Eagle View |
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| View from Eagle View |
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| View from Eagle View |
Wednesday June 11 was our last day at Sequoia. We went over to the General Sherman tree
again and from there hiked the Congress Trail. It went through a large area of
Sequoia tree, including several groups of 6-8 trees each called the Senate
Group, the House Group, and the Founders group.
We were able to go into the middle of the groups of trees and take
pictures looking straight up. It was
amazing.
We have really enjoyed our time at Sequoia, but it has been
a challenge running the generator once or twice a day, showering in CG showers,
and not having lights on at night.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we come down from Sequoia NP and go across through
Fresno and up to our campground at El Portal, just outside of Yosemite National
Park.
