The night was the quietest campground I'd yet enjoyed, until 2:30AM that is, when I woke to the sounds of people arriving at the site next to me, people who did not lower their voices or in any way take into consideration the time of night or proximity of other tents. Still I went back to sleep and woke again at 4:30 to the same volume. At 6:00AM I packed up camp; I was going to anyway though not at 6:AM, and they were still up. Meth heads?
I had breakfast at the Pinewood Picnic area near Lodgepole Village. I also ate lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner there, a home away from home. I walked Round Meadow again - no bears - got a campsite at Lodgepole CG - $20 and cramped; strolled the Congress Trail; visited the Big Trees Museum; walked the Crystal Meadow Loop.
Sequoias grow to be the largest trees in the world, not by height or base diameter, but by weight and volume, measures requiring calculation as no one is going to put them on a scale. The General Sherman tree, the largest tree on earth, weighs 1,385 tons and has a volume of 52,500 cubic feet. These trees now grow only along a swath 260 miles long and 15 miles wide on the west slopes of the Sierras between 5-7000 feet elevation, where they get sufficient precipitation and moderate year-round temperatures. The Big Tree Forest, the centerpiece of Sequoia National Park, icovers 1800 acres, making it the second largest of 75 existing sequoia groves. It has 2161 trees over ten feet in diameter at the base, including four of the five biggest sequoias - including the General Sherman Tree - five of the biggest ten and eight of top sixteen.
The two mile stroll around the Congress Trail passes by many of these enormous trees. It is the most heavily visited area in the park, but weekday crowds in late September were far from oppressive. Still, it’s social hiking. The understory is fairly sparse as the National Park uses prescription fires to keep the brush under control, allow younger trees to germinate, and prevent major conflagrations. Many of the older sequoias have deep fire scars from the old days of wilder fires. Group stands like the Senate are the result of regeneration following the hottest of fires.
Unlike other great trees - the California Redwood, Douglas fir, Sitka Spruce - the Giant Sequoia survived the days of renegade logging. The National Park estimates that the 36,500 acres of sequoia groves remaining in the Sierra represent 2/3 of the trees standing when white settlers first arrived. They were spared largely by the fact that they splinter too easily to make good lumber. Not that settlers were averse to felling the world’s largest tree to make toothpicks, but they hadn’t made much progress before governments began protecting them in state and federal parks. Congress made Sequoia the country’s second national park in 1890.
As evening approached I went back to Beetle Rock to enjoy a more leisured sunset. A popular spot, and a dozen or so people joined me. Saw slash piles assembled for what I presumed was a planned prescribed fire. Saw a fine fiery sunset.
For a second night my sleep was disturbed, this time by a two-year-old who started screaming at about 5:00AM and continued for two hours.
I woke up Saturday to the smell of smoke and sure enough the wind had changed directions. Cool air from the north and west was sending smoky air straight into the campground and the park declared air quality was unhealthy for certain people. I stuck with my plan to hike the high country to Pear Lake hoping either the wind would change or I would climb above the smoke. But after about three miles I got to the first real viewpoint - a stunner, said the book - and no viewpoint was to be had. Smoke was just pouring up the canyon. I sat and ate lunch on the Watchtower - a 1600’ granite block with views straight down to the Kaweah River below, and turned back, making it six miles round trip. The family with the screaming child had cleared out thank goodness so I was able to nap and do some reading about Giant sequoias before going back out on an afternoon hike.
Around 3:00 PM I set off on what proved to be a terrific hike on the Trail of the Sequoias. Started off very green, with ferns abounding but not Giant Sequoias. The big trees pick up and soon; many are down, some for a while, others apparantly just recently. Green, moist, saturated soil. In sum, it looked a lot more like a real forest than the Congress Trail, which has a museum quality to it, nice as that museum might be. Then I came to a burn area that appeared to be rather recent, though I couldn't tell for sure. It was a real fire; in some areas the Giant Sequoias were about the only living things and some of them look quite scarred. Steep slopes, boulders, some new grass and downed trees made for a potentially fine ecological study area. But the museum didn't mention it, nor did any trail brochure.
The sun by now was very low. I was on the last mile of a six-mile walk through the Giant Forest, descending a trail toward another big lovely meadow when I saw a huge bear walking across a log over a stream in the meadow. I yelled ("Hello Bear" to be precise) but it did not react. This was a bit more problematic because it was walking in a direction to intersect the trail exactly where I was heading if both of us keep going. I was five miles around the six-mile loop with dusk coming on so I really didn't want to turn around, so I proceeded cautiously. I lost sight of the bear when the trail went through some brush and when I reemerged I couldn't see it right away. Bears are not generally dangerous but you really don't want to startle one along a dusky trail. But then I heard it, in the meadow now, face deep in the bushes, chowing down. I yelled "Hello Bear" again, but realized it was making so much noise eating I would have to go down and smack it in the back of the head to get its attention. I refrained, and proceeded relievedly to my car, turning back just once to see the back of this big hulk, face down in the salad bar. I ended up walking 12 miles that day even though I felt like I hadn't hiked at all.
Saturday night was cold but blessedly quiet. I got up early and headed up the Tohopah Falls Trail. The mighty Marble Fork of Kaweah River is a sad little thing in late September, a little dribble running in the cracks of its granite bed. And if any water was coming down Tohopah Falls (1200') I couldn't see it. The sun was just coming over the cliff, though, so lighting was good, particularly on the incense cedar, as well as up on the big cliffs where I had perched in the smoke the day before. The air had started clear but by the time I got up near the falls I could see smoke gathering for its move up canyon, and my return was quite smoky. Nice soft lighting, at any rate.
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| Mighty Marble Fork of the Kawaeah River |
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| The Watchtower |
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| Incense Cedar |
With two fires burning in the park, the direction of the wind was largely determining the quality of my day. Generally I had been lucky; most days I could see the smoke plume heading up or down valley, ruining other people's days and delivering dramatic sunsets to Beetle Rock. But when the wind shifted, breathing was difficult and mountain visibility essentially worthless. I decided I would head north to the adjacent Kings Canyon National Park and see if I could outflank the fires.
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