This black bear cub and its twin were abandoned by their mother earlier this year. The Giant Sequoias ringing that beautiful meadow snapped me out of my funk. They deserve protection, preservation, from all that man throws at them – from logging to industrial tourism to climate change. So prehistoric as a species (dating back to the time of dinosaurs). So ancient as individuals (living thousands of years). So rare (growing only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada). They’re so large (the world’s largest living things by volume). They’re conifers, just like pine trees, but they’re in a totally different class along with Coastal Redwoods and China’s Dawn Redwoods. Giant Sequoias aren’t just big ol’ pine trees. My attempts to photograph big trees have always been stifled by their enormity and by my lack of skill with panoramic mode on my camera. The meadow’s expanse offered me my first opportunity to appreciate the entirety of a big tree – Sequoia or Redwood – in a single view. The rain clouds finally parted, allowing the suns rays to bounce off the reddish bark of the titans. The trail looped around a large green meadow surrounded by 250-foot Giant Sequoias. About 100 yards into my first hike, I was mesmerized. I prayed to see the trees through fresh eyes.įinally, I did. It was not a great start to a third Meander – a Meander that I finally kicked off after nine days of post-breakup soul-searching.įortunately, I recognized it. I regretted stopping at the smaller sequoia groves in Yosemite National Park the prior summer. I compared those first few Giant Sequoias to the Coastal Redwoods that I’d fallen in love with two summers earlier. I tried to psych myself up for my 35th national park since 2012. Oops!įinally, I settled on a campsite, ate a quick lunch, and set out for my first visit to the ancient giants of Sequoia National Park.Īs the Generals Highway swerved past its first Giant Sequoia, I got a brief thrill. I spent the morning driving into California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range and then bouncing from campground to campground looking for a decent spot for myself and some friends who’d be arriving two days later. Continue west on FR 65 for 14 miles (the last 2.8 miles are rough gravel) to the road's end at the trailhead (elev. At 7.6 miles, after passing the ranger station and crossing the White River, the road becomes Forest Road 65. (From Leavenworth travel west on US 2 for 15 miles.) Turn left (north) onto State Route 207 (signed for Lake Wenatchee) and proceed 4.2 miles to a Y intersection after crossing the Wenatchee River. The parking lot was a very welcome sight.ĭirections: From Everett head east on US 2 for 85 miles to Coles Corner. It took a lot of fortitude to wade through the long stretched of overgrown bushes between sadly short bursts through shady trees. Some of these tall bushes were berry bushes, so I'm glad we didn't surprise and bears out snacking. And the thick vegetation trapped heat and humidity, so bushwhacking through the overgrown trail with no shade cover in the heat of midday became pretty brutal. Vegetation was completely covering the trail in places, and it was often head high. The couple who had warned us about the trail in the parking lot were not exaggerating. We expected a quick hike out, but the trail was incredibly overgrown.
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