Day Twenty Three

Up at 6am and out the door by 7.15am. Made sure not to take any food with us. Drove the short distance to the entrance booth of Sequoia National Park. Man asked if we wanted a pass. Said no and gave him our National Park membership card. He seemed impressed. I don't think he thought tourists had memberships. He was so taken by it he forgot to ask for identification to prove I was the person named on the card.

With that we entered and then made the slow, winding, climbing drive up into the park. Got in early to avoid the traffic as we had done at Yosemite so it wasn't too bad. Let some idiot go past who was driving right up my chuff despite the fact I was driving on the speed limit in a National Park. The person in front then did the same. Had to laugh when later on he was only three cars ahead when we had to stop at roadworks.

Eventually made it to our first stop. Found a space easily as we were so early and then walked about half mile down to this.

General Sherman is the largest tree by volume of wood in the world. Despite the fact the top of it is dead it is still growing. Apparently it increases by the size of an average tree each year. It is 2200 years old. It was massive. To give you a sense of scale, I took a photo with a child in it for reference.

Chunky

We sat and marvelled for some time at its majestic hugeness. It is impossible to express just how big it is and the fact that sequoias don't taper as they go up just adds to that.

Once we had sat it the splendour of its presence for long enough we made the walk back up to the carpark. As we were 1.3miles above sea level we took it slowly and took the occasional rest. We then drove to the Lodgepole Visitor Centre. Here we had planned to go to the café. It turned out to be closed. Apparently visitor numbers are so low that it hasn't been open for a while and isn't likely to either. Instead we went to the shop and bought a magnet, obviously, and some drinks. I had an cornetto style ice cream too. Ann had something. We sat out in the shade and the temperature was very pleasant. We then went into the visitor centre where Ann upset a model bear.

Having read up all about the park and trees we headed up to Lost Grove. Pulled over and got out. It's an area with lots of sequoias either side of the road. Had a wander and took some photos of groups if big trees.

Bunch

Then this happened.

After the mule deer had gone we carried on looking at trees. Then the deer came back and started towards us. 

Other people started stopping to take pictures of it. There are signs everywhere saying don't feed or approach the wildlife, so what did people do? You can guess. Another deer then turned up and it too was encouraged to go towards people. The thing will be that the deer will keep wandering on that bit of road and then a speeding idiot will then mow it down. We got annoyed so decided to leave. Someone driving past then spotted the deer and pulled in across the front of us half in the road blocking our exit. Sat on the horn until that got out of the way. 

Turned around and slowly headed down to Wuksachi Lodge. The restaurant there was open so we got some lunch. Shared a pizza.

Next we headed down to the Giant Forest Museum. It was not really a museum at all, just a few facts about the forest. The main thing from today I have learnt is that as the National Park were so determined to preserve the forest they prevented forest fires as best they could, but after about a hundred years they've realised that this is bad and that the forest needs fires to regenerate. The lack of any fires stopped any new sequoia trees growing. It also meant that much larger destructive fires were more likely to happen. Mature trees can withstand the fires as their outer bark is two feet thick which protects the growing stuff inside. Also their branches are so high up they don't get caught in the flames.

Outside the museum is another one of the famous trees.

Sentinel

We left the museum and headed towards the Tunnel Log. This where a tree fell over the road and then a tunnel was cut for traffic to get through. There is a bypass if your vehicle is too tall. 

On the way up the car in front stopped. Then a hand came out of their window and motioned to us to look to our right. We looked. And then we saw it. After 13 years, 50 states and 11 National Parks we finally saw a real bear in the wild. Although we saw one from the train in Anchorage, the train was moving so fast we didn't actually get to experience the thrill. 

Immediately we rushed to get our phones out to capture this long awaited moment. Ann filmed this wonderful bit of footage.

I managed to capture a photo of a gorilla touching its toes.

We then put the devices away and watched. It was amazing to sit and watch it foraging away, ripping bark off the fallen trees. Eventually it wandered away and traffic was starting to build up. As we went to move I noticed a car in the opposite direction not even looking at the bear. They were looking to their right at a male deer with big antlers. I tried to capture it quickly but not with much luck.

Headed up to the tunnel log and drove through.

Turned around and drove back down the bypass and back out the way we had come. Saw this as we drove down.

Presumably it is the same bear that has wandered across the road, but may have been a different one. This time people in other cars got out and wandered across the road to take photos. Good plan.

We made one more stop at Moro Rock. This is a large granite rock which has 300+ concrete steps all the way to the top. We didn't climb it. Had a look at the views from the bottom. Then carried on driving back down towards the park exit.

Stopped at a few lookout points to take some pics and enjoy one final piece of American awesomeness.

Headed back to the cabin. Had dinner and then started to think about tomorrow. We have to pack up for the last time as we head for San Francisco Airport and a 7.25pm flight back to Blighty. 

The cricket is back. Think there actually are two in here somewhere having a chat. Buggered if I can actually find them!

States visited - 4

Bear watch - high

Deer watch - high