OUR NEXT ADVENTURE
  • Home
  • Blog
  • RV Parks we have visited
  • Map of our travels
    • About >
      • Contact
  • Statistics
the Honeymoon continues...

Our Blog of our activities as we travel...

Visiting Sequoia National Park and walking among giants.

9/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Today we drive into the Sequoia National Park.  This will be a great day.
Picture
Picture
It's smokey but as we go higher the air clears.  The smoke is from the San Bernardino fires which are 100’s of miles southwest of us.
Picture
Wow! There are huge trees here
Picture
Standing between giants!  With just a picture it is hard to see how big they really are.

This is a cross section of a mature but not even a large Sequoia with all its bark removed.
Picture
There are two kinds trees that are most common in the park the Sugar Pine and the Sequoia. The oldest Sequoia are 3,000 years old.  All the largest trees are over 2,000.  They are not even mature until they have reached several hundred years old. The bark does not easily burn on a mature tree and insects will not burrow through the bark because its thickness and increased tannin near the wood. A mature tree will have over 2 feet of bark. When they reach maturity all the lower branches fall away leaving a huge trunk that extends a 100 feet or more above the ground.  This makes it very hard for a fire to reach the limbs far above. The trees need fire to harden the bark and induce seeds to germinate.  They don’t rot or die of old age.  Biologists have determined that a Sequoia has no ultimate lifespan. Unless cutdown, ice age, or volcano it will not die under almost any other natural event.

Many of the largest trees are named.  This one is named Sentinel.
Picture
​The Sentinel tree is just an average size tree for this forest. Look close at the bottom and you can see the car. 
Picture
​The Sugar Pines are huge by comparison to regular pine trees but look tiny in this forest.  The interesting thing about the Sugar Pine is the pine cones.  They are huge!
The Sequoia by comparison has a pine cone that is about the size of a large chickens’ egg.  From tiny seeds grows a gigantic tree.

Today we started with a hike to Moro Rock and it was exhausting but we had amazing views.
Picture
Hiking at over 6,000 feet is difficult when you start the day at about 500 feet.
It does not make it any easier when you are walking up a rock that includes 350 steps to get to the top of what is equivalent walking up over a 20-story building.
​
The views just kept getting better as we climbed.  But when you look back to where we started, it was a bit overwhelming.
Picture
​And at times it was a narrow path between the cracks in the rock.
Picture
Then there you are standing on the very edge of a gigantic granite outcrop.  We were like tiny ants standing on a boulder.
Picture
Picture
After a time of taking in the views, it was time to head back down.
Picture
Picture
Then a hike on the Sugar Pine trail.  A 1.4-mile hike through along the ridge and valleys between sugar pines and sequoia. First a quick look back at Moro Rock.
Picture

​Yes, those are people way up at the top.

​As we hiked, we came up on this Sequoia.  Not a big tree for their species but still very impressive.
Picture
​Let’s give a bit of perspective to the size.
Picture
Picture
​These berries grew along the trail.  They look well defended by the thorns.
Picture
Time for some lunch at the truck and after that we walked around the largest tree in the world.  Redwoods and Sequoias are enormous.  We seemed tiny standing under them.

The General Sherman is the largest tree on the planet by volume.  It is not the tallest in this forest.
Picture
Picture
​One that fell in 1959 was cut into a tunnel for people to walk through.  It was only a small tree for this forest of only 12 foot in diameter at the base but still amazing.
Picture
​We stood near trees that were thousands of years old.  The oldest known Redwood is about 2,520 years old, but the oldest Sequoia is even older at a documented age of 3,200 years old.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    We are a couple who have started on a new adventure...

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • RV Parks we have visited
  • Map of our travels
    • About >
      • Contact
  • Statistics