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| The Travelling Brits are on the move again through hilly pretty farming lands.....coffee and cake at a pull-out with an historical marker....this is the remains of a dredger built by a gold miner to dredge for gold in the valley, operations stopped in 1951 and it is unknown how much gold was extracted.... |
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| I thought it was time insert a water-tower or two.... |
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| This is the J59 south linking us back to the 99 S...once we are on the 99 it is mile after mile of vines, corn, almond, citrus and pecan....fascinating to us to see such vast areas of agriculture....the outside temp has just clicked over to 100F..... |
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| We are staying for the next 2 days at Three Rivers to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks... |
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| We are just 6 miles from Sequoia NP entrance then it is a 20 mile drive up the narrow winding steep Generals Highway to the Giants Forest and Sequoia Museum.... The old road used to go under Tunnel Rock.... |
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| We are amazed, until we got a mile from the Giants Museum we had not seen any large tree not even a lodge pole pine, then suddenly there are these majestic trees...... |
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| From the museum we take the two thirds mile easy Big Trees Trail, a lovely walk through part of the Giants Forest..... it is also now a very comfortable mid 70's as we are at 6,500 ft elevation and shady... We are blown away by the Sequoia.......they are so majestic, the beautiful cinnamon colour and the size are just, well words fail me.... |
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| Sequoia only grow naturally on the west slope of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range....the conditions have to be perfect, not to wet and not too dry....unlike other trees the trunk of the sequoia stays much the same width almost to the top.....the young trees have a pointed top then when they reach the top of the forest canopy and the sunlight, the top dies and the tree stops growing taller, the trunk then fattens out.....these trees live to over 3,200 years...... |
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| This is the meadow on the Big Trees Trail.....the sequoia grow around the edge but the meadow area is too wet for them..... |
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| Beautiful green fern type grass.... |
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| The size of these noble trees is incredible.... |
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| From the Giants Forest we head north stopping at a valley overlook....a good place to have our lunch sandwich.... |
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| Next stop on todays tour is the famous General Sherman Tree.....there is a huge construction/road works project on this part of the park's road system....most of the road is the original wagon train with just a coating of tarmac, with todays extra traffic the road has to be "upgraded"......not a problem but we did have a 45 min wait while some heavy equipment worked on the road before the pilot car could take us all through to the parking area for General Sherman...the queue was in a very shady spot and gave us all chance to speak to the ranger on duty.... Back to the General, it is the world's largest tree....there are taller and thicker trees but the overall weight makes it the largest....it is estimated to be 2,200 years old, 275 ft tall with a circumference of nearly 103 ft....it's largest branch is almost 7 ft in diameter and each year it grows enough wood to produce a 60 ft tall tree..... |
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| It's a half mile steep trail down to the General....we then walk some of the Congress Trail through the sequoia grove.... there is a free shuttle to take folks back to the upper parking lot from here but we feel the exercise would be good !!! |
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| Sequoia have very shallow roots and no taproot so are susceptible to high winds and erosion.... |
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| The Buttress Tree came down in 1959 and there is still little sign of rotting......... |
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| Back down through the road works, just a 20 min wait, and onto the scenic drive to Tunnel Log and Moro Rock... |
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| From a view point near Tunnel Log we can see Moro Rock...this has a steep climb to the top, we can see folks up there......we look at each other and say no "not for us" ....... |
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| Moro Rock and viewing platform seen from the viewpoint.... |
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| And of course when we get there we do the climb......but it was soooo worth it.... |
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| One of the fascinating rock formations on the climb up...we're at 6,725 ft elevation.....it's a quarter mile "staircase" with 350 steps plus slopes to the viewing platform but the climb has a guard rail or rocks to prevent falling from the narrow path.... |
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| And hey here we are.....wonderful to be up here, fabulous views and so glad we did it... |
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| The viewing platform..... Time to head back down the long winding road home......this has been a fantastic day, Sequoia NP is a must see far better than we had envisaged.... Another day in the park tomorrow......over and out for now from The Extremely Happy Brits..... |
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