We stayed in the town of Three Rivers, about 10 miles outside the south Ash Mountain entrance to Sequoia National Park.
You’re at about 1700′ elevation at the entrance, sitting in traffic:
but climb to over 6,000′. We counted over 25 switchbacks/hairpin turns on Generals Highway with speed limit at 10 – 15 MPH. Because the road looks like this on the GPS:
And wildlife! A black bear (with brown fur) just 20 yards off the trail:
The trail continues in among the sequoias:
We got to Tharp’s Log, a cabin built out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest. Hale Tharp grazed cattle in the meadow, and led early battles against logging in the area. John Muir visited and stayed at Tharp’s log cabin.
Meadow near Tharp’s Log:
And the Giant Forest beyond:
More wildlife – a deer on the trail, and he just kept hiking near us:
We crossed the High Sierra Trail, but didn’t take the 60 mile trek to Mt. Whitney:
The rings on a cross section not only tell the tree’s age, but also the weather each year – narrow rings mean dry years, wide rings were damp:
Headed straight to General Sherman, the largest tree (by volume) in the world:
You can’t zoom out enough to photograph the whole thing:
From General Sherman, we took the Congress Trail, so named because of the clusters of sequoias – dubbed the House and Senate groupings. And hiked with another deer:
Many of the trees had fire damage, but this one was burned dead:
There’s a little waterfall along and under the path:
You can see a tree tunnel on the far side:
And then we reach The President tree:
This group is The Senate:
And The House:
And this might be Lincoln:
Fallen sequoias make great playgrounds, as we reach that tunnel tree:
Little lavender flowers blanket the forest floor:
How big? See this medium-sized tree outside the Museum? It would be 9 yards short of a football field, and would block 3 lanes of traffic on a highway.
On our way out, I loved these mosaic stone walls (that kept us from crashing over the edge on all those switchbacks), and then we got the view of Moro Rock, which lots of folks climb.
Near the exit, we stopped at Hospital Rock, which, according to Wikipedia, was once home to 500 Potwisha Native Americans, as early as 1350. In 1860, Hale Tharp and John Swanson were exploring the Giant Forest when Swanson injured his leg. Swanson was transported here where his injury was treated by local Indians. Tharp gave the spot its name after a second similar incident.
That red marking on the straight rock wall? Petroglyphs!
This “Community Kitchen” slab was where the native women ground acorns into flour – you can see the grinding indentations:
Then there’s a trail down to the waterfall, with stone steps built by the Civilian Conservation Corp:
Shrimp enchiladas for dinner:
