Sequoia National Park

In honor of the National Park Service’s 100th birthday, I have been trying to hit as many of parks and monuments as I can. Last week, my friend B. and I decided to take a spontaneous roadtrip. Not only is B. a photographer but he also had some time off. We saw that the Yosemite area was going to have a batch of exceptionally nice weather, so off we went.

Sequoia National Park was the first park we hit. After sleeping under the light of the stars in the nearest campground (well, really under the light of all the RVs parked around us), we headed into the park. We were excited to find that there was still lots of fall color. Added bonus.

Our first stop was Moro Rock. I’d been expecting a climb since the description mentioned something about 350 steps, which I chose to ignore. Then I saw this.

Oy. But the view from the top

made it all worth it, especially since we had the rock to ourselves for, oh, about seventeen seconds before some other people showed up.

While B. made himself some breakfast, I took a quick hike around Crescent Meadow, hoping to get a bit closer to the lovely giants for which the park is named. Beautiful path–and you know how I likes me a pretty path.

 

But the biggest treat was finally getting up close and personal with those big trees.

Not only are they massive, but they have a really cool texture.

I think this one totally looks like a big fuzzy foot of a mammoth or something.

There’s something very solemn about walking in a sequoia forest, which I can only convey to you with some black and white imagery.

My favorite hike in Sequoia was Round Meadow. At the beginning of the trail was this beauty. The color of that bark!

We also found this boulder-sequoia mashup

and this boulder-on-boulder formation, which looks like sculpture.

Once we looped around, I just had to gaze at this guy a little longer.

Impossible to give you any sense of just how tall these trees are. Here’s the best I can do.

Yowza.