Wild-West Road-Trip: Sequoia National Park

When I was first learning how to photograph, I'd leave the house and spend a few hours photographing the outdoors in my hometown. After I returned, Jen would look through my pictures to see how I was doing. On more than one occasion, sh e'd say, "Why are you only photographing trees?" My response was that they don't move and I know what they're supposed to look like.

Long story short, all that practice photographing trees finally paid off today at Sequoia National Park as I photographed the tallest trees I'd ever seen, including the world's largest living thing! 

This is a Sequoia named, "The Sentinel." It's base is twenty-five feet in diameter and it's over two hundred and fifty feet tall. On site at the park museum, there's a pretty cool exhibit where those measurements are displayed as part of the paved walkway.

You can read this as if the tree was laying down on the ground. For a reference, that's the Sentinel in the middle-right.

And, here's another view with the kids in front:) As a reminder, perspective is everything. I'll show you more about that in a bit. For now, let me also say that the weather was just beautiful in the park. We've been in the desert area if the southwest US for so many days, now, this more temperate climate was such a relief. At the highest altitudes the temperature was only seventy-nine degrees. In short, it was amazing.

Okay, back to perspective. These two trees grew together as saplings and eventually merged at the base. They look enormous, right? Well, check out the same two trees from a different perspective and an Evan standing in for good measure.

How's that? These trees are just amazing organisms that have managed to outrank everyone else in the arms-race for reaching the top of the canopy to gather that much-needed sunlight.

Here's another pic with Evan doing his best impromptu tree-pose. It's been years since he did yoga, but he was a good sport.

The thing is, these huge trees all came from seeds found inside pine-cones just like this one. The trees release hundreds of cones each one containing hundreds of seeds. There's a great chance that none of them will survive to produce a mature Sequoia, but as our tour guide and driver mentioned, all the tree has to do is produce one tree to replace itself and it will have been successful.

Here are my three replacements;) They're sitting on a Sequoia that was toppled over a century ago. They call it the Auto-Log and for a very long time, people could pose with their vehicles on top of the massive trunk. I'm told that all changed when a minivan fell into the trunk in the later part of the twentieth century.

I also had the coolest experience of being able to stand inside this living tree. It may not have the canopy of the other trees, but there are still green branches growing on one side. The main cause of the disfiguration for these trees is fire, whether it's from lightning strikes or burns that can sweep through the underbrush. Almost every Sequoia that we saw has visible signs of fire damage.

There's the view from the inside.

Here's another tree (are you seeing a trend, here?) that has some fire damage. In fact, fire is not such a bad thing for the natural forest. Fires have happened for millennia in forests like these and they will continue. It's only since people have moved into the forest that we've tried to control the fires or prevent them altogether. The heat from the fire actually helps the cones to release their seeds on the forest floor. And, the trunks of the mature trees are moist enough and strong enough to withstand the flames. The fire even clears away the dead plant-matter from the ground so that new saplings have enough room to develop a secure root system.

The kids really enjoyed playing in the forest in ways that they simply could not in the previous parks. I guess there is hope that they're capable of entertaining themselves with sticks and rocks and dirt instead of iPads and video-games.

One of the highlights of our tour was the opportunity to climb the three-hundred and fifty stairs to the top of Moro rock within the park. Here's the view from the tree-line at the edge of one grove.

Here's the view from the base of the the stairs.

Along the way, there are some amazing view.

As I sometimes do, I got pretty close to the edge.

One of my favorites:)

This meadow was once called the gem of the Sierras by John Muir, the father of our national parks. The rangers ask tourists to stay out of the foliage, but you can walk across the meadow and back on the trunk of one of those giant trees.

Here's a picture of Jen and the kids with Steve, our tour-guide and driver.

We were also very fortunate to have seen a black bear and two cubs foraging in the forest on the way to lunch. I used a 500mm lens to get these shots, but as the bear made it's way through the trees, I felt like it was gradually getting closer to the road. We left shortly thereafter because it's always better to eat lunch than to be lunch!

The two cubs stayed behind trees and in the taller shrubs, but it was easy to notice that they were there. I don't think I'd like to be any closer to this momma bear than I was. Anything closer seems like an invitation for trouble.

The last attraction on our tour through Sequoia National Park was the General Sherman tree. This living and breathing fixture of the landscape is so large, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fit the whole thing in my viewfinder. Thankfully, a fifteen millimeter focal-length is just the right medicine.

The view changes with the light as we wrap ourselves around the base of the tree. Note that even this tree has withstood fire damage. I'm told that the trees will eventually heal themselves if no other damage occurs before the process is done. This two-thousand year-old tree will zip itself up from top to bottom in an effort to protect its heart.

The green leaves on the enormous branches are proof of life within this beast of a tree, the largest living thing on the planet. Most Sequoias only die when they are toppled over by wind or if their roots are weakened due to fire or erosion. The root-system extends only six feet into the ground, but spreads out for hundreds of feet and often interlocks with other giant Sequoia.

This last view was the best:)

I'd like to thank Steve, our tour-guide and driver from Sequoia Sightseeing Tours. We had a fantastic time in the park and much of that was owed to the efficient route and informative conversation that we shared. I'd also like to thank Paul, who owns the Sequoia Sightseeing Tour company, for driving all the way back to our campground after I forgot Evan's hat and the boys' junior-ranger program books. That kind of service is nothing short of phenomenal. If you're ever in need of a tour through Sequoia National Park, you won't be able to do any better than this: https://www.sequoiatours.com/

That's it for today. Tomorrow, we drive to Yosemite and continue on this amazing path. Thank you, everyone, for reading and for putting up with all my "tree-pictures" as Jen calls them. Take care!

- Wayne