My neck hurt by the end of the day.
There are truckloads (oops) of sequoias in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. And after spending an entire day looking at the tops of every last one of them, you can't help but have a bit of neck pain.
But first, we went to Crystal Cave. On the road leading to the cave's parking lot, we saw a bear cub in a bush eating berries. The bush hardly seemed able to support a bear! From the parking lot, it was a nice half-mile hike down to the cave's entrance through—get this—poison oak, bay laurel, and live oak. I thought I was back home! Turns out we saw the cave just in time: a wildfire started in the region just five days later and they closed the cave for the season.
Are we having fun yet? Yep! |
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A recent chip shows how white the rock is under the dust from tourists' feet |
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Peeking from the bottom of this image... |
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...is the man in the cave! Every cave needs one. |
The marble glistens in this stream |
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The original lights were reputed to have been installed by Disney for best dramatic effect; note the greenish glow in this shot |
Lori is still having fun, even though the tour is over |
Nice lunch spot outside the cave next to a stream |
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The stream |
The spiderweb door to keep out the flies |
Note how the door pivots in the middle |
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A waterfall along the trail down to the cave |
Another waterfall |
Poison oak, bay laurel, and live oak? Up here??? |
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Four large sequoias guard the road to the cave |
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On the way to Moro Rock, we saw another bear eating berries in a bush, but it scampered off before Lori could snap a shot.
Tunnel Log |
The trail up the back of Moro Rock |
Lori atop Moro Rock with the Great Western Divide and Kaweah Peaks Ridge cutting the horizon behind her |
A panorama to the east... |
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...and to the west |
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Lori descends Moro Rock with Castle Rocks in the background |
Bill and Lori with a spectacular backdrop |
Or do you prefer this? |
Granite poses in foreground, and background, and playground |
Cool cut on descent |
Do you think I'll look that good after I've been dead 100 years? |
We saw the General Sherman tree, the largest tree (by volume) in the world, and part of the Giant Forest. We took the Congress Trail to see other giants named after presidents, generals, and houses of government. We left the paved trail to take in Circle Meadow which we had all to ourselves.
The General Sherman tree |
Bill and Lori dwarfed by ol' General Sherman |
That *branch* is seven feet in diameter! |
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Betcha this tree made a sound, even if no one was around to hear it |
Another tree fell nearby, and a tunnel was formed |
I dubbed this one the Elephant tree |
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The House |
The General Lee tree |
The upper portion of the General Lee |
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The Senate |
Peering up through the Senate |
Lori in front of the Senate |
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The President |
The upper reaches of the President |
Lori takes a break next to the Prez |
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Now in Circle Meadow, we see a sapling, a dead sequoia, and a pretty good-sized one |
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Bill and Jabba the Hut |
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Cattle Cabin |
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You could live in this tree |
We go through that tree we saw earlier |
Sequoia pine cones |
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Saw our third bear of the day on the way to Stony Creek Pizza. Pretty good pizza. I didn't get a single good shot of the bear, so I'll leave you with five fuzzy shots.
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| < Back to Grant Grove | On to Redwood Canyon > |
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Copyright © 2008 Bill Wohler Last modified: $Date$ About photos |
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