Sequoia National Park and forest /Bears and Big Trees

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After a last soak in the hot springs, with the blinkers working again, we drove off up into the mountains to a place called The Trail of 100 Sequoia Trees. It was a beautiful drive. En route there was a bit of excitement when we spotted our first bear. He was by a restuarant rummaging through the bins. Several people stopped to get a photo, but the resuarant owner warned us to get inside as he would be dangerous.

So, onwards towards the 100 trees.

Arrived there just before it got dark, and camped in a turn in off the road closeby. The forest smelled of pine needles.

Next day it was cold. We wrapped up and arrived early at the trail...first visitors. Car park attendant told us that it is cold as the elevation is 7000 feet! He also confirmed that we can camp anywhere for free in the National Forests, but is ilegal to camp anywhere except the designated campsites in the National Park.

We had a great couple of hours exploring the trail, climbing on the fallen Sequoia tree and taking photos in and around these massive giants. About the time the crowds arrived it started to rain, so we jumped into the van and off towards the National Park. Drove down 7000 foot and then up 7000 foot to arrive a

t Sequioa National Park before dark, and booked into the official campground. It was raining....so we took refuge in the launderette to use the wifi.

That night we found the radio in the van wouldn't turn off, so went to sleep slightly anxious that the battery would be flat in the morning......and sure enough, this was the case. Inconvenient as this was a Sunday, so not a day to contact Wicked Campers. But convenient that we were camped at an official campground with helpful rangers, one of whom said she would jump start us when ready to go. We decided to leave this until the Monday, and spend Sunday hiking along the forest trail to General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. A strange thing about giant Seqouia trees....they all seem to have several black fire scars, sometimes so deep you can walk inside. We read that the natural forest wild fires that occur every few years actually benefit the Seqouias. They have such thick bark that they can survive a fire, whereas their smaller competitors around will be killed off. This clears the surrounding ground ready for new seqouias to germinate around them. As we walked in the forest there were several areas of blackened pine trees.

We were a little nervous about bears since black bears had been seen in the area and the rangers advise all food and trash to be locked safely up in bear proof bins at the campsite. However, we equiped ourselves by reading all the safety advice, so felt slightly prepared incase of an encounter.....Sure enough, we had gone a little way along the trail when we saw the first bear in our path. We stopped, and one of us took out the camera. The other was fingering the armoury of emergency stones in her pocket! The bear started to stroll in our direction. I remembered the rangers advice to make a loud noise, and started to make a yodelling kind of racket. At that, the bear sat up, spotted us, and ran off and climbed quickly up a tree. We carried on with glances backwards, not daring to stop for our picnic until we reached the toilets near General Sherman. On the return trip we saw a mother bear and 2 cubs, but by this time we felt a whole lot more comfortable that we would be able to keep ourselves safe.

That night it was cold and raining hard. But fortunately the next morning we awake to bright sunshine. The wonderful helpful ranger helped us by jump starting the car, and showing us how to disconnect the radio fuse so that it would not drain the battery again.

And then it was time to drive across the mountain road admiring the views on our way to Kings Canyon National Park.

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