Lee Vining
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
38
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Lee Vining,
California,
United States
Saturday, November 3, 2007
After breakfast the sun was out and we drove back towards the park entrance to "The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias". I remembered as a kid, just a few years back (!), seeing a picture of a giant tree that someone was driving a coach and horses through the centre of. Now here they were.
The California Redwoods are the tallest trees, the Mexican Montezuma Cypress has the greatest base diameter, so what about the Sequoias? In total volume, ( height and diameter), they are the largest living things known to humans
Early morning at Wawona Hotel
. We decided to walk through part of the forest trail, aware of the Ranger's warnings about bears, (oh yes - and the mountain lions)!! It was all uphill and what hit us was the effect of the thin air, as we started at 5600 feet and trekked slowly uphill. We gazed in awe at 'The Fallen Monarch', which had toppled in the early 1800's and been photographed with a mounted troop of US Cavalry on top of it !! The Sequoias contain so much tannin that they are preserved for hundreds of years before they start to rot. 'The Grizzly Giant' is one of the largest trees in the grove and is about 2700 years old - yes, the figures are right !! 'The Clothespin Tree' which is 2 seperate trees that have grown and fused together in the upper parts. 'The California Tunnel Tree' which was cut in 1895 as a winter season tree that stagecoaches could travel through. Why do they not die when they are cut ? The inner of the tree is dead and only provides physical support for the living, growing outer which pushes onwards and upwards / outwards. The bark on some of these trees is up to 12 inches thick.
Where was the main man ? 'The Wawona Tunnel Tree' fell in 1969, weakened by years of people trampling over its roots, its centre cut away and not now giving full support and a sudden big snowfall that was the last straw
Blue Jay feeding on the lawn at Wawona Hotel
. It now lies broken on the ground but still awesome. No trees are now allowed to be cut and the largest trees are all fenced off. The reason is that the Sequoias roots go no deeper than 6 feet but spread over a large area. A warden described them as being like a 6 inch nail that is fine whilst it is perfectly balanced but any upset to the roots and they are at risk. We were able to go carefully near some of the younger trees and the bark had a soft, fibrous feel to it. It was a somewhat humbling feeling looking at these giants and marvelling at their age and size.During our 'walk' we saw many chipmunks playing over the fallen trees, small grey and black squirrels running from tree to tree, deer grazing quite close to the path, noisy blue jays making their presence felt and woodpeckers bashing away at the trees. I'm not sure if they realised that they were banned from the Sequoias or not !
We spent far longer with the Sequoias than we expected and I regret not a minute of it. We had planned to move on from Yosemite and it was gone 2pm before we set off. We were exiting by a NE road that is prone to bad weather and after checking with a ranger station we set off with a warning to be careful.
Deer in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias
We returned past Wawona and Yosemite Valley and turned onto the 'Tioga Road'. It steadily climbed, passed through tunnels in the rock and wended its way along the cliff edges. Towards the top we encountered fresh snow at the side of the road and ice warning signs. The outside temperature was now 45 deg after the sunny 78 deg in the Valley. Passing 'Lake Tenaya we stopped and photographed the mountains, which were being highlighted by the low afternoon sun like a red spotlight. At 'Tioga Pass' 9945 feet we were at the summit and slowly drove downhill in the gathering dusk with vertical cliffs for most of the way down. We cleared the Park just as it was dark and turned N to 'Lee Vining' for an overnight in a motel. It was now quite cold and we wore our fleeces for the first time in weeks.
This had really been quite a memorable day !!
Distance Driven 110 miles
