I doubt if anyone (except me) ever visits this blog but for what it's worth, I feel compelled to announce that there shall be no more updates here. I still maintain vivid accounts of our travels but the blog is simply too unwieldy for our purposes. I want a more streamlined way of uploading pictures and accompanying them with text that describes not just the pictures but also other related trip information. If you know of such a site, please let me know. For now, head over to my picasa page for trip pictures.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Sequoia national park
Destination: Sequoia national park, CA.
Date: June 30, 2007.
Trails hiked:
1) Congress trail - 2 mile loop, 200 feet elevation gain, very easy.
2) Moro rock - 1/4 mile, 300 feet elevation, easy.
Date: June 30, 2007.
Trails hiked:
1) Congress trail - 2 mile loop, 200 feet elevation gain, very easy.
2) Moro rock - 1/4 mile, 300 feet elevation, easy.
Our very first long distance trip was to the Kings Canyon & Sequoia national parks in eastern California. Four of us (Me, Suchi, Preethi and CP) made a very long one day road trip in a really small Ford Mustang. Being our first long distance trip, we made several rookie mistakes starting with the car rental. Looking to save some money, we had planned to rent the car on the morning of the road trip. Suchi dropped us at the San Jose airport around 7 AM and went back home to pack for the day. However, she left the house key with us and ended up getting locked out on a not particularly pleasant morning. Preethi and I were both relatively new to the bay area at that time and got comprehensively lost on the way back from the airport further delaying our departure. Finally, it was around 9:15 AM when we picked CP up from Campbell and started on our way.
Our intention was to visit the Sequoia national park, see the big trees and head back before sunset. Curiously, both the north and south entrances of the park take almost the same time to drive to from bay area. We decided on the north entrance because Highway 198 at the south end supposedly has notoriously curvy roads. None of us had driven in long road trips then, much less on mountain roads at night. We took 101 south to Gilroy where we turned east into CA-152. More ill planning made itself apparent soon. We had set out on a 6 hour drive with no concrete plans for food. All of us being strict vegetarians further complicates matters since it is impossible to find restaurants that serve such food in the sparsely populated Central California valley. Finally, we found a diner when we turned south into CA-99 where we had a big meal wasting another hour in the process. After this pit stop, we made good progress. We hit Fresno and turned eastward again onto CA-180 which led us to the northwest park entrance at around 3 PM.
None of us had any idea what to expect and we promptly oohed and aahed at every reasonably large tree we spotted. In retrospect, these first few trees were no larger than any one would find in a typical old growth forest and were mere dwarfs in comparison to the heavyweights that awaited us. Our first glimpse of the true giants was a strand of sequoias by the side of the road enroute to the visitor center. We pulled over and explored these trees in the process jumping over a barricade that was in place to prevent just that. CP even got a picture of himself taken standing inside a living tree. It is hard to get used to the massive size and age of these trees. Just imagine: these trees germinated when Nebuchadnezzar was ruling Babylon; Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Zoroaster were yet to be born.
Sequoias are a truly wonderful species. They are evergreen and typically live for about 3000 years. They are practically indestructible by fire and insects. In fact, forest fires play a vital role in their life cycles by clearing competing vegetation and also help open the hard cones thus helping the seeds to disperse. For such large trees, they grow surprisingly close to each other with often only 10 feet or so separating two neighbours.
We had some garden burgers at the visitor center and drove to the first attraction - the beautifully named Giant forest. The centerpiece of the Giant Forest was the General Sherman tree, the world’s largest tree in terms of bark volume (and also, by most definitions, the largest living thing in the planet). The tree is 84 meters tall with a base circumference of 31 meters. In plain numbers, it might not seem all that impressive but the sight sure was. There is a tourist standing at the base of the tree in the picture below to provide the viewer with some perspective. It was a short but slightly steep 300 feet walk away from the parking lot to enter the Giant Forest. There is a nice viewpoint down this trail where General Sherman first comes into view where we realized that our camera doesn’t have any batteries. I ran back to the car and searched frantically among the countless bags we had and couldn’t find them. I was almost going to ask some stranger for a pair of batteries when I found them tucked just out of sight beneath the car seat. (We did ask some stranger for a pair of batteries on a different occasion. Some people never learn).
After this misadventure, we took the obligatory photo in front of General Sherman and ventured onto the Congress Trail (so named because the sequoias that dot the trail are given names like the Senate, President etc). The trail is a very easy walk on a paved walkway with majestic sequoias rising up into the sky on either side. This trail has the highest reward to effort ratio of any hike I have been on till date. The hike is literally a walk in the park except the park in this case is a grove of giant sequoias among which are 5 of the 10 largest trees in the world. There is even an uprooted giant sequoia tree that the trail crosses. After probably an hour of craning our necks to peek at the tree tops, we decided to turn back and head for our next destination: Moro Rock.
Moro rock is a 300 feet granite dome with commanding views of the Great western divide, a sub range of the Sierra Nevada mountains that separates the watersheds of the Kaweah and King rivers. A very narrow dirt road leads to the base of the rock and we climbed the 400 steps to the top. The top offers views of the distant and hazy San Joaquin valley and the high peaks of the great western divide (some of them over 13000 feet). Unfortunately, Mt. Whitney (the tallest peak in the contiguous United States) which lies in the eastern part of the park can't be seen from here. Also, there is a constant haze in the air which I read somewhere has to do with pollution from the bay area. There were quite a few people armed with tripods at the top hoping to catch a colorful sunset. After spending some 15 minutes at the top, we decided to head to the final destination - Crescent meadows.
Crescent meadows is a beautiful alpine meadow dotted with giant sequoias along its rim which John Muir famously described as the “Gem of the Sierras”. Considering the scenic beauty of the Sierras, this is high praise indeed. We were greeted by a magnificent lush green meadow with a fallen sequoia providing us a bridge to walk across. I loved the place and could only imagine how much prettier it would have been under better lighting conditions. There is also a sequoia studded trail that loops around the meadow. By this time however, it was almost dark and the nocturnal creatures had started taking over. We were content to merely walk across the fallen sequoia all the way to its roots and back. It was probably only an owl we heard but it was enough to scare us into returning to our car as fast as we could. At around 8 PM, we started heading back and after seemingly forever, we got back to the bay area at around 2 AM.
The trip was excellent overall though we hardly hiked and only took in the standard tourist attractions of the place. We didn't even catch a glimpse of the adjoining Kings canyon national park and the famous Crystal cave system. We will definitely be heading back a couple more times to do justice to this wonderful place.
Dos:
1) Despite the thronging crowds and the general touristiness of the hikes, both Giant forest and Moro rock are well worth doing for the views they offer.
2) If like me you like snowcapped peaks, make the trip in late May/early June. Always check ahead for road closures.
3) High Sierra is bear country. Take all necessary precautions especially at nights.
Donts:
1) If you are visiting from the bay area, don't make it a one day trip. Even though it can be done, the park is just too far away and the driving is just too strenuous. Consider spending a night in the park (though campgrounds are hard to get) or near the park.
2) One lesson we took from this trip is to leave early for such trips. It is absurd that we spent nearly 13 hours driving to spend 5 hours at the park.
3) Don't climb Moro rock if there are thunderclouds nearby. The rock is among the highest points in the area and a granite dome is no place to be in such weather. Afternoon thundershowers are almost a daily occurence in the high Sierras.
The route we took
Our intention was to visit the Sequoia national park, see the big trees and head back before sunset. Curiously, both the north and south entrances of the park take almost the same time to drive to from bay area. We decided on the north entrance because Highway 198 at the south end supposedly has notoriously curvy roads. None of us had driven in long road trips then, much less on mountain roads at night. We took 101 south to Gilroy where we turned east into CA-152. More ill planning made itself apparent soon. We had set out on a 6 hour drive with no concrete plans for food. All of us being strict vegetarians further complicates matters since it is impossible to find restaurants that serve such food in the sparsely populated Central California valley. Finally, we found a diner when we turned south into CA-99 where we had a big meal wasting another hour in the process. After this pit stop, we made good progress. We hit Fresno and turned eastward again onto CA-180 which led us to the northwest park entrance at around 3 PM.
None of us had any idea what to expect and we promptly oohed and aahed at every reasonably large tree we spotted. In retrospect, these first few trees were no larger than any one would find in a typical old growth forest and were mere dwarfs in comparison to the heavyweights that awaited us. Our first glimpse of the true giants was a strand of sequoias by the side of the road enroute to the visitor center. We pulled over and explored these trees in the process jumping over a barricade that was in place to prevent just that. CP even got a picture of himself taken standing inside a living tree. It is hard to get used to the massive size and age of these trees. Just imagine: these trees germinated when Nebuchadnezzar was ruling Babylon; Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Zoroaster were yet to be born.
Our first view of the big trees
Sequoias are a truly wonderful species. They are evergreen and typically live for about 3000 years. They are practically indestructible by fire and insects. In fact, forest fires play a vital role in their life cycles by clearing competing vegetation and also help open the hard cones thus helping the seeds to disperse. For such large trees, they grow surprisingly close to each other with often only 10 feet or so separating two neighbours.
We had some garden burgers at the visitor center and drove to the first attraction - the beautifully named Giant forest. The centerpiece of the Giant Forest was the General Sherman tree, the world’s largest tree in terms of bark volume (and also, by most definitions, the largest living thing in the planet). The tree is 84 meters tall with a base circumference of 31 meters. In plain numbers, it might not seem all that impressive but the sight sure was. There is a tourist standing at the base of the tree in the picture below to provide the viewer with some perspective. It was a short but slightly steep 300 feet walk away from the parking lot to enter the Giant Forest. There is a nice viewpoint down this trail where General Sherman first comes into view where we realized that our camera doesn’t have any batteries. I ran back to the car and searched frantically among the countless bags we had and couldn’t find them. I was almost going to ask some stranger for a pair of batteries when I found them tucked just out of sight beneath the car seat. (We did ask some stranger for a pair of batteries on a different occasion. Some people never learn).
General Sherman in Giant forest
Sight from the congress trail
After this misadventure, we took the obligatory photo in front of General Sherman and ventured onto the Congress Trail (so named because the sequoias that dot the trail are given names like the Senate, President etc). The trail is a very easy walk on a paved walkway with majestic sequoias rising up into the sky on either side. This trail has the highest reward to effort ratio of any hike I have been on till date. The hike is literally a walk in the park except the park in this case is a grove of giant sequoias among which are 5 of the 10 largest trees in the world. There is even an uprooted giant sequoia tree that the trail crosses. After probably an hour of craning our necks to peek at the tree tops, we decided to turn back and head for our next destination: Moro Rock.
Moro rock
Moro rock is a 300 feet granite dome with commanding views of the Great western divide, a sub range of the Sierra Nevada mountains that separates the watersheds of the Kaweah and King rivers. A very narrow dirt road leads to the base of the rock and we climbed the 400 steps to the top. The top offers views of the distant and hazy San Joaquin valley and the high peaks of the great western divide (some of them over 13000 feet). Unfortunately, Mt. Whitney (the tallest peak in the contiguous United States) which lies in the eastern part of the park can't be seen from here. Also, there is a constant haze in the air which I read somewhere has to do with pollution from the bay area. There were quite a few people armed with tripods at the top hoping to catch a colorful sunset. After spending some 15 minutes at the top, we decided to head to the final destination - Crescent meadows.
Crescent Meadows
Crescent meadows is a beautiful alpine meadow dotted with giant sequoias along its rim which John Muir famously described as the “Gem of the Sierras”. Considering the scenic beauty of the Sierras, this is high praise indeed. We were greeted by a magnificent lush green meadow with a fallen sequoia providing us a bridge to walk across. I loved the place and could only imagine how much prettier it would have been under better lighting conditions. There is also a sequoia studded trail that loops around the meadow. By this time however, it was almost dark and the nocturnal creatures had started taking over. We were content to merely walk across the fallen sequoia all the way to its roots and back. It was probably only an owl we heard but it was enough to scare us into returning to our car as fast as we could. At around 8 PM, we started heading back and after seemingly forever, we got back to the bay area at around 2 AM.
The trip was excellent overall though we hardly hiked and only took in the standard tourist attractions of the place. We didn't even catch a glimpse of the adjoining Kings canyon national park and the famous Crystal cave system. We will definitely be heading back a couple more times to do justice to this wonderful place.
Dos:
1) Despite the thronging crowds and the general touristiness of the hikes, both Giant forest and Moro rock are well worth doing for the views they offer.
2) If like me you like snowcapped peaks, make the trip in late May/early June. Always check ahead for road closures.
3) High Sierra is bear country. Take all necessary precautions especially at nights.
Donts:
1) If you are visiting from the bay area, don't make it a one day trip. Even though it can be done, the park is just too far away and the driving is just too strenuous. Consider spending a night in the park (though campgrounds are hard to get) or near the park.
2) One lesson we took from this trip is to leave early for such trips. It is absurd that we spent nearly 13 hours driving to spend 5 hours at the park.
3) Don't climb Moro rock if there are thunderclouds nearby. The rock is among the highest points in the area and a granite dome is no place to be in such weather. Afternoon thundershowers are almost a daily occurence in the high Sierras.
Our Hiking Tales
Welcome to our travel blog. We hope to record here accounts of our visits to various state and national parks with pictures and our impressions. We have already been hiking for over 2 years before we got around to writing this blog. So, expect the first several posts to be recounts of hikes already done. As a teaser, these posts will be about our trips to Sequoia national park, Yosemite (3 trips), Lassen national park, Point Reyes state park, Big Basin redwoods state park (2 trips) ,Pinnacles state park (2 trips), Grand canyon national park, Crater lake national park and Mt. Rainier national park. Hope you enjoy our accounts.
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