Monday, August 01, 2005
Standing Among the Giants
Current Location: Fresno, CA (forgot to take a GPS reading).
On Sunday I got up early and left Bakersfield and drove back to the southern portion of the Sequoia National Forest on California 178. I found that I had driven through a very narrow canyon the night before, with very steep hillsides, and burnt grass. I drove about 25 miles in to the waterfall I had heard and not seen the night before. The roads of the canyon were so steep and twisty, that it was actually scarier to drive the road during the day, now that I could see I was inches from plunging to immediate death for a good twenty miles the night before. What made driving during the day even scarier was driving and coming upon a gang of about 15 to 20 motorcycles, racing down the canyon road towards Bakersfield, at at least twice the speed limit of the road, if not more. They were going so fast they were scaring the other drivers and pedestrians along the route. The waterfall was impressive, though not quite as impressive as I had imagined it the night before.
I then made my way back to Bakersfield and then north to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks via California 65 then California 198. The road to the national parks was an interesting one. On alternating sides of the road, I would find orange groves and oil derricks, definitely a strange sight to behold. On a side note, oil derricks, at least the ones I've seen on this trip, are a lot smaller than I had pictured. Sequoia and Kings Canyon are actually two distinct national parks, adjacent to each other, but they are administered as one park, though much of King's Canyon is closed in the winter due to snow. Since Sequoia is the southern park, I drove through that one first. The park road goes from an elevation of a few hundred feet to well over 5,000 feet over the course of about 15 miles of forest and mountain. The mountain drive is incredibly spectacular, with amazing views around almost every turn in the road. Some parts of the drive, I couldn't help but find myself slack jawed from the amazing sights of nature.
After about 20 miles, I came to the heart of the park, the Grove of Giants, the biggest grove of Sequoia trees in the park (and the world). This is something I've been waiting for, one of the goals of my trip, and my life, to see these magnificent trees. I made a quick stop at the Giant Forest Museum, where I learned a little bit about the trees, before venturing into the forest along the main meadow trail.
Standing here, walking around the path, you start feeling this most humbling effect. These particular trees are so massive, upwards of 40 feet in diameter, not tapering, and upwards of 320 feet tall, and you feel so small and insignificant next to them. These particular trees are so old, 2000-3000 years old, their history dwarfs yours. Its amazing to think what they've weathered. Many of the trees in the grove were there before the founding of Rome, incredible. I don't know about you, but the feeling of insignificance is one I relish from time to time. Most of our lives we spend being self-centered, thinking about ourselves in the most mundane way. These trees can momentarily lift that veil, and allow us to think of far loftier things, inspiration, pondering imponderable questions like why are we here?, what is my place in this?, was the universe created?, can I fathom thousands of years of history, never mind billions? When I start pondering impossible, paradoxical questions, like eternal life, or what existed before the big bang, I can feel my head start to shake and explode, I love the feeling.
The amazing thing about these trees is how much they depend on fire. For 100 years, no fires were allowed in the park, and any natural fire was quickly quelled. But in the 1960's the ecologists realized something was wrong, as there was no new growth in all that time. Fire is necessary to clear the underbrush and create fresh soil for the seedlings of the trees, and clear out old growth so the new trees get plenty of light to grow. The Sequoias are picky, they can only grow in certain elevations and soil moisture levels, but once established, are quite hardy. They can't die from old age, fire, heartwood removal, partial bark removal, flooding, or disease. They can only die from falling over (their roots are actually quite shallow), or of course, human intervention and interference (cutting them down or causing them to fall over by trampling or flooding their root soil).
The seed cones are quite small, especially compared with the cones of smaller conifer trees in the grove
I was amazed at the amount of foreign tourists in the park. I would say only about half of the tourists were from the United States, the other half were from Japan, Australia, Canada and Europe. I think its a little jarring to consider that there are places so amazing in our own backyard, that people come from all over the world to visit them, and yet we don't. I know about 3 people other than myself who have been to Sequoia National Park. If you have been to the park, let me know.
Though my car as been a sufficient friend to me thus far, it occurred to me that if I was to do a similar road trip again, I'd want to bring three vehicles with me. An RV for sleeping and storing my stuff, a jeep type vehicle for off road and difficult terrain, and a BMW for the incredible twists and turns and ups and downs of the mountain roads.
Two miles down the road from the main parking area of the Giant Grove, is the General Sherman tree, the largest living organism on earth. It is not the tallest tree, nor is it the widest, but combining the two makes it the most massive. The tree is huge, and the pictures can not convey the extreme largeness of the tree. I couldn't get far enough away to capture the whole tree in one shot.
After the General Sherman tree, I drove down the road and eventually found myself in King's Canyon National Park. The views here were absolutely spectacular. If I remember correctly, King's Canyon is the deepest canyon in the US, and offered some amazing views. I was lucky enough to be in the canyon near sunset, and captured many amazing photos.
Sequoia and King's Canyon has been the best day of the whole trip so far, and Sequoia bumps Denali from the number 1 spot on my list of favorite national parks (and favorite places in general). Since I'm a photo taking maniac, I took 257 photos for the day, 200 of which I posted on the web here. After leaving the park, I drove west on California 180 to Fresno, where I stopped for the night. On monday, I'm headed to Yosemite National Park.
Finally, I wanted to leave you with a short little prose-poem thing someone sent me. Bart, a cool guy I used to work for, sent me this directly before the start of my trip, and although I never found Silver City, I really liked the piece a lot:
A Little Place At The End Of The Road In The Woods
On Sunday I got up early and left Bakersfield and drove back to the southern portion of the Sequoia National Forest on California 178. I found that I had driven through a very narrow canyon the night before, with very steep hillsides, and burnt grass. I drove about 25 miles in to the waterfall I had heard and not seen the night before. The roads of the canyon were so steep and twisty, that it was actually scarier to drive the road during the day, now that I could see I was inches from plunging to immediate death for a good twenty miles the night before. What made driving during the day even scarier was driving and coming upon a gang of about 15 to 20 motorcycles, racing down the canyon road towards Bakersfield, at at least twice the speed limit of the road, if not more. They were going so fast they were scaring the other drivers and pedestrians along the route. The waterfall was impressive, though not quite as impressive as I had imagined it the night before.
I then made my way back to Bakersfield and then north to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks via California 65 then California 198. The road to the national parks was an interesting one. On alternating sides of the road, I would find orange groves and oil derricks, definitely a strange sight to behold. On a side note, oil derricks, at least the ones I've seen on this trip, are a lot smaller than I had pictured. Sequoia and Kings Canyon are actually two distinct national parks, adjacent to each other, but they are administered as one park, though much of King's Canyon is closed in the winter due to snow. Since Sequoia is the southern park, I drove through that one first. The park road goes from an elevation of a few hundred feet to well over 5,000 feet over the course of about 15 miles of forest and mountain. The mountain drive is incredibly spectacular, with amazing views around almost every turn in the road. Some parts of the drive, I couldn't help but find myself slack jawed from the amazing sights of nature.
After about 20 miles, I came to the heart of the park, the Grove of Giants, the biggest grove of Sequoia trees in the park (and the world). This is something I've been waiting for, one of the goals of my trip, and my life, to see these magnificent trees. I made a quick stop at the Giant Forest Museum, where I learned a little bit about the trees, before venturing into the forest along the main meadow trail.
Standing here, walking around the path, you start feeling this most humbling effect. These particular trees are so massive, upwards of 40 feet in diameter, not tapering, and upwards of 320 feet tall, and you feel so small and insignificant next to them. These particular trees are so old, 2000-3000 years old, their history dwarfs yours. Its amazing to think what they've weathered. Many of the trees in the grove were there before the founding of Rome, incredible. I don't know about you, but the feeling of insignificance is one I relish from time to time. Most of our lives we spend being self-centered, thinking about ourselves in the most mundane way. These trees can momentarily lift that veil, and allow us to think of far loftier things, inspiration, pondering imponderable questions like why are we here?, what is my place in this?, was the universe created?, can I fathom thousands of years of history, never mind billions? When I start pondering impossible, paradoxical questions, like eternal life, or what existed before the big bang, I can feel my head start to shake and explode, I love the feeling.
The amazing thing about these trees is how much they depend on fire. For 100 years, no fires were allowed in the park, and any natural fire was quickly quelled. But in the 1960's the ecologists realized something was wrong, as there was no new growth in all that time. Fire is necessary to clear the underbrush and create fresh soil for the seedlings of the trees, and clear out old growth so the new trees get plenty of light to grow. The Sequoias are picky, they can only grow in certain elevations and soil moisture levels, but once established, are quite hardy. They can't die from old age, fire, heartwood removal, partial bark removal, flooding, or disease. They can only die from falling over (their roots are actually quite shallow), or of course, human intervention and interference (cutting them down or causing them to fall over by trampling or flooding their root soil).
The seed cones are quite small, especially compared with the cones of smaller conifer trees in the grove
I was amazed at the amount of foreign tourists in the park. I would say only about half of the tourists were from the United States, the other half were from Japan, Australia, Canada and Europe. I think its a little jarring to consider that there are places so amazing in our own backyard, that people come from all over the world to visit them, and yet we don't. I know about 3 people other than myself who have been to Sequoia National Park. If you have been to the park, let me know.
Though my car as been a sufficient friend to me thus far, it occurred to me that if I was to do a similar road trip again, I'd want to bring three vehicles with me. An RV for sleeping and storing my stuff, a jeep type vehicle for off road and difficult terrain, and a BMW for the incredible twists and turns and ups and downs of the mountain roads.
Two miles down the road from the main parking area of the Giant Grove, is the General Sherman tree, the largest living organism on earth. It is not the tallest tree, nor is it the widest, but combining the two makes it the most massive. The tree is huge, and the pictures can not convey the extreme largeness of the tree. I couldn't get far enough away to capture the whole tree in one shot.
After the General Sherman tree, I drove down the road and eventually found myself in King's Canyon National Park. The views here were absolutely spectacular. If I remember correctly, King's Canyon is the deepest canyon in the US, and offered some amazing views. I was lucky enough to be in the canyon near sunset, and captured many amazing photos.
Sequoia and King's Canyon has been the best day of the whole trip so far, and Sequoia bumps Denali from the number 1 spot on my list of favorite national parks (and favorite places in general). Since I'm a photo taking maniac, I took 257 photos for the day, 200 of which I posted on the web here. After leaving the park, I drove west on California 180 to Fresno, where I stopped for the night. On monday, I'm headed to Yosemite National Park.
Finally, I wanted to leave you with a short little prose-poem thing someone sent me. Bart, a cool guy I used to work for, sent me this directly before the start of my trip, and although I never found Silver City, I really liked the piece a lot:
A Little Place At The End Of The Road In The Woods
Deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California is Sequoia National Park. In the park there is a narrow road that winds through 698 hairpin turns, 25 miles in and up 8,000 feet into the mountains. At the end of that road, tucked into a valley amid the great giant redwoods is a small colony of cabins they call Silver City. The small primitive cabins were built in the 1920s, and since park rules have prevented any further sale or development of the cabins, they remain as inconspicuous now as they were many decades ago.
The location of Silver City is so remote that few people go there. But the essence of Silver City is so magical that successive generations of families return there every year when the spring thaw allows passage along the road. There is also a campground (tents only) a few hundred feet down the road for those with tight budgets but the same affinities. The redwoods there will make you feel like you've pitched your tent in a cathedral.
There is a little general store in Silver City that sells gas for a lantern, hotdogs and canned beans, batteries, film, maybe an ice cream bar, and other meager essentials.
Every Fourth of July, at sundown, they line up eight wooden benches on the back porch of the general store. All people still in Silver City are invited to the annual talent show and guaranteed a slice of apple pie for showing. People emerge from the cabins and tents to take varied places on the benches, and soon scoot themselves over to let others fill in the spaces. As daylight fades the porch is illuminated by glow of hanging candlelights.
The "talent" for the show is the audience on the porch. The festivities are kicked off by the latest generation of children of the family that has owned the store for the past 70 years. They use a flashlight as a fake microphone and pass around to the next volunteer "on stage." With a gaggle of kids and even a few hammy grown-ups around, there's never a lack of third-rate entertainment to fill the evening air with the sound of fun and cheer.
The finale of the show taps into all the talent on the porch with a gentle thankful round of the Star Spangled Banner. The tears in people's eyes dry up in time to pass out pie on paper plates. A little while more of eats and shared enjoyment are had, and then the people scatter into the darkness.
I think I once went to Silver City but I'm not sure it wasn't just a dream. If you happen to come upon such a place, please report back its existence to me.