Western Adventure Part V: Sequoia National Park and King's Canyon

We left the High Sierras and headed back through the San Joaquin Valley (think loads of fruit) to Sequoia National Park. Here we saw the General Sherman Tree (the largest tree on Earth!)and went atop Moro Rock. The road to Moro rock was an adventure in itself (see photo of the road and its switchbacks up the mountain). We then climbed over 400 steps to reach the top of this giant rock (6,725-foot elevation). The stairway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The view from the rock encompasses the Great Western Divide. At Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, live the five largest living giant sequoia trees in the world. We also found two "baby" bears and a mama that they had almost surpassed in size!

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir

This tree was once a saloon!

Tunnel Log is a tunnel cut through a fallen giant sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park in California. The tree, which measured 275 feet (84 m) tall and 21 feet (6.4 m) in diameter, fell across a park road in 1937 due to natural causes. The following year, a crew cut an 8-foot (2.4 m) tall, 17-foot (5.2 m) wide tunnel through the trunk, making the road passable again. You can see the van going through in the pic!

Grant Grove is home to the General Grant tree, a.k.a. "the Nation's Christmas Tree".

I think I said this in the first post, but CA has to be the most interesting of the American states. Two more things we saw there that you don't see where we live are wind farms and oil-drilling. You can see both in these pics.

King's Canyon: This place has some extreme elevation changes 6K-over 14K and is even deeper than the Grand Canyon. When we finally got to the bottom I was a bit freaked out b/c it was getting dark and the river at the bottom was RAGING scarily almost over capacity and onto the road. The waterfalls were flooding the picnic areas and well, I decided I would not be camping down thee for the night!

Cool Fact : The snowy, saw-toothed mountain range is over 400 miles long and 60-80 miles wide SO the Sierra Nevada range exceeds the whole Alps area- French, Swiss and Italian. I did NOT know that! Palisades Crest in the Kings Canyon area has six peaks itself over 14K.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
John Muir