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Published: October 13th 2017
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blog 10-12-17 Sequoia Nat'l Park
We slept in this morning til almost 8. The weather is perfect with temps in the mid 70 s during the day and cooling off to 45 at night which makes for good sleeping.
We wanted to get out early today to go to King's Canyon and Sequoia Nat'l Parks but we had great internet and I needed to make reservation for the next 2 weeks. So it was about 10:45 before we hit the road. It was 55 miles to the park on 65 mph roads so we thought we'd be there and back in no time. Somehow we missed the sign for our highway and went out of the way for a while and then the roads were so windy and hilly you could only go 40 mph the last 30 miles. Anyway we finally made it to Grants Villiage and found our grove of Sequoias after getting our book stamped.
We were at 6,000 ft in the park but descended into a little valley where the grove of trees were. They tend to grow in a protected area away from severe wind because like the redwood their roots are shallow
but can go out 200 ft and get support from other trees, so growing in clumps is what they do. Fire is good for them as it clears out the undergrowth and the heat opens their cones to release the seeds which doesn't happen for at least 2 weeks giving the ground time to cool. Everything in Nature's timing.
The Sequoia is not as tall as the Redwood but it is much bigger at the base. That is the first thing you notice is the size of the base of the tree. One tree in the grove is believed to be 3,000 yrs old. Just think about that. It started growing 1,000 yrs before recorded history, and it's still alive.
There was a trail we followed through the grove and there was fence a good 20 ft from the base of the trees. Their roots are fragle and constant walking on them would damage the tree. As a result we couldn't get up close for picture comparison or to touch them which we both wanted to do. But we sure got to see them.
One of the trees had fallen down and the trunk is there to
walk through, imagine walking through a fallen tree and not having to bend over.
We saw the trunk of the tree that was cut down to send to Washington so that congress would see the tree and make the area a national park. John Muir was present at the cutting and I can only imagine what he thought or felt as he saw the giant fall. They cut cross sections of the tree and they are still on display in New York and London.
General Grant was in a spot all by himself and is believed to be the biggest Sequoia alive. It is a special prevledge to be in the presence of something that big and that old.
We made our way back up the hill to the resturant and ordered lunch to go. The ride down the hill was faster than the one up the hill and in a little more than an hour we were home again.
The night was the usual routine and we retired early as we have a long ride tomorrow, going to Boulder City, NV.
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