CALIFORNIA

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are two national parks situated right next to each other that are testament to nature’s size, wondrous beauty and diversity. For size: it is home to North America’s deepest canyon, the Kings Canyon; the contiguous US tallest mountain, Mt. Whitney;

Mt. Whitney

and the world’s largest living organism, General Sherman. For diversity: it has immense mountains, vast caverns, rugged foothills, alpine lakes, diverse forest that includes the giant trees. its vegetation changes from yuccas typical to dry meditarrenean climate to forest of pines typical of alpine region, where most of the glaciers of Sierra Nevada find home. For beauty:

check this out, pictures they speak more than words, and this professional photographer has beautiful pictures of Sequoia and Kings Canyon. Sequoia National Park was created by congress in 1890, becoming the second US National Park, after Yellowstone National Park. The creation of the park was to protect the BIG trees! However, the boundaries of Sequoia National Park protect not even half of the Sequoia groves that remain. In 1999, Bill Clinton signed into law the creation of Sequoia National Monument, to protect forever these defenseless giants from logging, that threatened their existence before.

Highway 180 and Moro Rock from Amphitheater Point, Sequoia National Park

Moro Rock is one of the small outcrops of Sierra Nevada granite. The Sierra Nevada contains a long formation of granite covering nearly 16,000 square miles. The peak of Moro Rock can be reached without technical rock climbing, though serious climbers prefer to climb the face of Moro Rock. From the parking lot of Moro Rock, there is a 400 steps stairway that snakes into the top of Moro Rock.

 Stairway at Mono Rock

For a short hike of about half a mile and 35o ft change in elevation, you reach the top of Moro Rock  at 6725 ft elevation. How cool is that ! In only 400 stone steps you are at the top of Moro Rock, which felt like being at the top of the world! The view at the top is pretty, after all Moro Rock sits at the top of a dense forest of giant trees and Kaweah River Canyon, which its headwaters start at 12,000 ft in elevation and travels 10,000 vertical ft down in only 20 miles!

The Western Divide from the top of Moro Rock

Looking to the East of Moro Rock is the Great Western Divide, which is a series of 13,000 ft plus mountain peaks that runs from North to South.

Sierra Foothills, Looking West from the top of Moro Rock

To the west of Moro Rock is the Sierra foothills, and if you look down closely, you would see the zigzagging road that snakes to the top.

the long windy Highway 180

It is the road that you took entering Sequoia National Park from the South.

Staying at the top of the rock makes you appreciate the National Park System for preserving nature in its purest form. Sequoia National Patk, Kings Canyon National Park and Squoia National Monument all work together in protecting this diverse, beautiful, and magical land of the giants.

Though Sequoia National Park is not just about the giant trees, as I have mentioned in my Tokopah Falls post, but then, the Sequoias are such giants that one can hardly ignore them in every visit.

Highway 180 Divided by 4 Giant Sequoias

 Entering Sequoia National Park from the South, where the change in vegetation changes amazingly from dry grass, yuccas, oaks and chaparrals at low elevation very common in an arid climate to a forest of conifers at high elevation, our first interesting glimpse of the giant Sequoias where on Highway 180 where the 4 giants seemed to be equally spaced apart for the highway to pass through. Since we were not in a hurry, we stopped when we saw a dirt pull-over to let our eyes feast on these monstrous creatures.

What Are They Looking At?

( One of the 4 Sequoias that divide the Highway 180 in the above picture )

 Once inside the park, there were just groves of the giant Sequoias everywhere, it is hard to find your tree to take a picture One interesting feature of the park is that there is no dominant specie of conifer, since we had our 13 year old niece with us when we travel, it sounded more fun, since she kept on guessing the specie, whether it is a Sequoia, a ponderosa pine, a fir, a sugar pine, etc. I was just amazed with her at how she prepared for the trip by reading a lot about the species of conifers  . I have experienced in the trails that the great outdoors usually brings a strong interest for kids to learn more about their natural world. If you want them to ask a lot of questions and interpret a lot of things (that is make them think to make hypothesis to their questions) , all you’ve got to do is bring them out of the doors. 

One of the interesting clusters we saw right on the road was on our way to Crescent Meadow. It is such a huge cluster of giant conifers, the Sequoias. 

Parker Group

What Is he Taking Picture Of?

 Some of the trunk of these Seqouias are broken looking like a creepy cave 

Sorry, but have to stand here to illustrate the hugeness of the trunk

We surely had fun taking our time with these group of giants ( Parker Group) which can be found on the Crescent Meadow Rd.

Still on Crescent Meadow Road, there is an interesting Tunnel Log which you can drive through.

Tunnel Log

 The tunnel log is made from a sequoia that fell on 1937 from natural causes. The sequoias’ demise are oftentimes due to their weight, when they get too heavy they can no longer support themselves and topple. The chemical make-up of sequoia make it resistant from diseases and wildfires. Other trees in the Sierra die from disease, fungi, fire, but it seems nothing can hurt the Big trees except their own weight. Their chemical make-up make them among the oldest trees in the world.  The oldest known having lived more than 3200 years. And these trees can only be found here in California’s “Sierra Nevada” (spanish of snowy range). And because they grow for many centuries, from a tiny seed, they grow into giant trees! Though in the first few years of their lives you may probably think they are dwarf since they grow very slowly compared to other trees, but if you can live as long as they are, you would be surprised as to how it turns into, a giant! 

General Sherman Tree, the largest living tree 

 General Sherman tree is not the tallest tree in the world (the tallest tree is another redwood, located in Redwood National Park, also in California), it is not the widest tree in the world, but it is the largest in terms of volume, having an estimated trunk volume of 52,500 cubic feet. The sequoias, just like the redwood, soar high into the heavens that it is hard to photograph them from ground to top even if I lie down on the ground. These giant trees soar high into the sky and grace the landscape offering a beauty that can not be found anywhere else on Earth. 

For lodging information, please visit the site: http://www.visitsequoia.com/default.aspx

For more information, visit the park site at: http://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm

The pictures above were taken last summer 2008, at this time of the year, the park is a winter wonderland deeply burried in snow that will last until late spring or early summer.