Sequoia National Park

[Scud]

Big Trees. Sequoia National Park in the Southwestern part of the Sierra Nevada range, in California, boasts that it is home to the largest living thing on earth: the General Sherman Tree. It's something like 3,000 years old and it is huge... really one of those "you have to see it to believe it" kind of things. 

 

 

 

 

Here's a group of "little" ones. I had to use the panorama function to take the picture - you simply cannot see the whole tree unless you are very far away from it.

 

 

 

Here's one that fell across the road in the 1930s. The Civilian Conservation Corps decided to cut a tunnel through it. I think the trunk was about 14 feet in diameter (for comparison, the General Sherman tree is over 35 feet in diameter). 

 

 

 

 

And here's an average-sized Sequoia. The black cavity is a fire scar, which the tree is in the process of healing over. Research into Sequoias demonstrated that they needed fires to sprout and that mature trees went through a period of rapid growth for several years following a fire.

 

 

 

While this was predominantly a family trip with lots of hiking and sitting under waterfalls, I did a few nice rides.  Here's a tasty 6,000 foot drop, along with a picture of the road taken from the top of Moro Rock. This is looking East, over the foothills that lead to California's Central Valley. 

 

 

 

Many roads remain unridden...

[docc]

Makes riding to work this morning seem a bit mundane.

 

Thanks for showing us a good time, Scud!

[Lucky Phil]

Was there in September last year, not on the bike unfortunately.

 

Ciao

[stewgnu]

Awesome. one day i'd love to visit the west coast parks.

 

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[Admin Jaap]

Thanks Another one for my bucket list...

 

In 2004 I was so lucky to visit some NPs in the West, but this wasn't one of them... I found Bryce Canyon to be the most impressive.

[Scud]

I'm a big fan of our parks - and an annual pass holder. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the US National Park Service. On this trip, we also got into Kings Canyon National Park, which is adjacent to Sequoia NP. 

 

While Sequoia and Kings Canyon are best known for the Sequoia Groves, it's a large park system that also has Crystal Cave, which we visited, and huge granite domes and waterfalls, similar to Yosemite.

 

Bryce Canyon is like being on another planet.

 

"The mountains are calling, and I must go."  - John Muir

[Rox Lemans]

Great thread , my fellow Scuraphile.;-)