Into the Trees

It was the diversity of Sequoia National Park that caught us by surprise. Merely desiring to walk among the largest trees on earth had been enough to bring me here with two of my daughters, but we also found incredible waterfalls and panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada, and soaked in deep pools along a couple of the park's rivers. We saw seven bears, including three cubs, during a visit of only four days.

The park is located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. The single continuous mountain range stretches more than 400 miles long and 60-80 miles wide. There is no road access to either park from the east. Sequoia National Park was established in 1890, making it our nation's second national park after Yellowstone in 1872.

Autumn is an ideal time to visit because the summer crowds have moved on, yet the temperatures in the main areas are still quite mild. Because of the park's extreme range of elevations -- 1,360 feet to 14,494 feet -- you can practically pick your climate year-round. In October, in the foothills, you can expect temperatures in the 80s with nighttime lows in the 40s. Yet at the same time of year in the main areas of Giant Forest and Lodgepole, you will find average daytime temperatures in the 60s, dipping down to the 30s at night. Snow can hit the mid-elevation area in autumn and high peaks year-round.

Although most visitors choose to use one of the park's many campgrounds, we opted for the creature comforts of the Wuksachi Lodge. Three separate buildings provide lodging while the main lodge has a large and luxurious community living room, where you can relax by the fire, read or just play a board game. There is also a cozy bar, equally suitable as a meeting place or a refuge where one can grab a drink and unwind after a long day on the trails. Considering the rustic surroundings, our room was surprisingly modern with all the conveniences, including a refrigerator, coffee maker and television.

As hikers, we ingest most of our calories in the form of trail mix, fruit or sandwiches, but we did take in a couple of meals in the large dining room where cathedral windows frame the mixed conifer forest and mountain views.

On our first morning, we were up early and headed a few miles down the road to the park's Lodgepole area, where there are a visitor center, campground, camp store and two small eateries. We picked up some hiking maps at the visitor center, then headed out on foot to hike the Tokopah Falls Trail. The hike follows the picturesque Marble Fork of the Kaweah River upstream 1.7 miles one-way to a 1,200-foot-high cascading waterfall. In this short distance and about 500 feet in elevation gain, we found the terrain and vegetation had changed dramatically. This was a harsher landscape than we had seen at the trailhead; now we were surrounded by stunted trees and granite cliffs of this glacially carved canyon.

We spent the rest of the day at the Giant Forest area of the park, home to one of the largest of the 75 giant sequoia groves that grow naturally in the world. This 1,800-acre grove contains about 8,400 sequoia trees, including four of the world's five largest. The General Grant tree, which we also visited on our trip, comes in at number three and is located in nearby Kings Canyon National Park. Besides the trees, this area showcases the immense diversity of the park. Here, you will also find Sierran montane meadows and stunning panoramic views of some of the park's high peaks.

Giant sequoia trees are only found on the southern Sierra's western slope, most often between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation. They grow in a mixed conifer forest, which also supports white fir, incense cedar, sugar pine and ponderosa pine. Giant sequoias are estimated between 1,800 to 2,700 years old and can be as tall as a 26-story building. These trees are so enormous that fallen, hollowed out trees were once used as living quarters. At least one, at the Fallen Monarch tree in Grant Grove, served as a saloon and hotel.

Until about 11 years ago, the Giant Forest area was full of commercial development. Beginning in 1997 the park service removed 282 buildings to restore the grove to a more natural environment. It now contains just four historic buildings, including the Giant Forest Museum, the Beetle Rock Education Center, an employee residence and the museum comfort stations -- the term used here for restrooms. Other comfort stations have been built in busy trailhead and parking areas.

Giant Forest alone has 40 miles of maintained trails or footpaths for hikers of every skill level. Many intersect each other, so you can turn even a short hike into a full-day trip. There are a handful of sequoia-lined meadows worth visiting in the area but we set our sights on one of the most famous, Crescent Meadow. Naturalist John Muir visited this area in 1875 and was so impressed by Crescent Meadow that he later wrote about it calling it the "Gem of the Sierra."

A short stroll brought us down to the meadow, which is half a mile long and was filled with flowers. Here we started a 1.6-mile loop hike, but the first few minutes' worth followed the world-famous High Sierra Trail before it veered off to the east. The High Sierra Trail can be used to climb up to the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at an elevation of 14,494 feet. From here, climbing Whitney requires a demanding 70-mile journey, and often a 10-day round-trip time commitment. It is more commonly accessed from the Whitney Portal Road on the eastern crest of the Sierra over a 10.7-mile hike.

Although there are plenty of day hikes close to the main roads of both parks, to see the majority of the backcountry you will have to take extended backpacking trips. Hikers have 850 miles of maintained wilderness trails to choose from, where they can find complete solitude among alpine lakes, rugged peaks and canyons.

Our next stop was Moro Rock, a granite monolith where climbing to the summit via a strenuous quarter-mile one-way trail, which rose 300 vertical feet along extremely narrow man-made steps. The spectacular view up there reaches east to the Great Western Divide, and many prominent yet barren looking peaks of the Sierra Nevada were spread out before us. The terrain above 9,000 feet cannot support the kind of big trees or forests found below. Above 11,000 feet no trees grow at all, just low shrubs.

We finished up our Giant Forest tour by visiting the granddaddy of them all, the 275-foot General Sherman tree. If the definition is restricted to trees with a single trunk, this is the largest one on earth by sheer volume. It is estimated to be about 2,100 years old and to weigh about 2.7 million pounds. The Sherman tree's circumference at the base is 109 feet, its diameter 36.5 feet -- and it's still growing.

As we returned to the parking area, Olivia, 21, was leading the way when she spotted a large bear only 20 feet or so in front of us, coming around a boulder about the size of an automobile. We froze in our tracks to avoid startling it, though in retrospect, I think it must have been aware of us. Even so, it was willing to ignore these insignificant humans as it foraged briefly through the low-growing vegetation, then turned back into the dense woods. Just when we thought our bear experience was over, her two cubs, one black and one a light brown color, come into sight. In another 10 seconds they, too, had disappeared into the forest.

All bears in California are of the breed commonly called "black bears," even though they can be brown, black, cinnamon or blond in color. Although the grizzly is featured prominently on the state flag, it is no longer found wild in California; the last wild grizzly was purportedly near Sequoia in 1922. Most black bears leave people alone, but some have come accustomed to hanging around where humans have been careless with food. One such bear gave us quite a surprise later in our trip.

Fall is the best time to explore the park's rivers. The water flows, which are often at dangerous levels during spring and summer, have calmed down by then. With a little scouting we found an easily accessible spot along the Marble Fork of The Kaweah River complete with an inviting pool maybe 20 feet wide and four deep. We used our car as a bathhouse to change into swimming attire, whereupon Charlotte, with the spontaneous joy of an 11-year-old and a whoop of delight, headed straight into the chilly water. Olivia and I sat on large smooth boulders just dipping our lower legs into the water.

Our pleasant idyll came to an abrupt end when Charlotte pointed out the presence of a bear. Olivia and I at first didn't see him but then he came into view across the stream, coming down through the woods toward us on the opposite shore. With my heart pounding I grabbed Charlotte's hand and helped her out of the water. Then we all slowly backed our way up the riverbank toward our vehicle, very slowly and awkwardly, for we dared not take our eyes off the bear. We fumbled with the car locks, tumbled inside and locked the doors, then sat a while until our heartbeats subsided. Then we snapped a few pictures as the bruin headed upstream, under a bridge, and out of sight.

This bear had a wide collar on his neck and Olivia joked that it had probably escaped from a circus. Later on we found out the collar carried a radio device to track problem bears.

We spent the next day primarily at Kings Canyon National Park, adjacent to Sequoia on the north. The two parks are managed jointly although Kings Canyon was established much later, in 1940. We took the scenic drive to Kings Canyon stopping at Roaring River Falls and Grizzly Falls, and stopping again for a swim in the river.

That afternoon we spent hiking a few trails at one of the park's most famous attractions, Grant Grove. The highlight here is the General Grant tree, 276 feet tall and forty feet in diameter at the base. It was designated as the nation's Christmas tree in 1926 by President Calvin Coolidge. It is also a memorial to the men and women who have given their lives in service to the country and was proclaimed a National Shrine in 1956 by President Eisenhower.

We also walked through the entire length of Fallen Monarch tree. No one knows for sure when it fell, but the fire-hollowed tree was used as a temporary residence in 1872 by the Gamlin Brothers who were building a cabin nearby. It has also served as a hotel, a saloon and was used by cavalry as a temporary stable for 32 horses. Visitors are welcome to walk through its length, which we did easily, as it was so roomy we didn't have to stoop or even step to the side when other visitors walked through from the other direction.

Thankfully Sequoia wood is brittle and therefore not as useful as other trees for timber, which has probably saved many of the giants. Even so, loggers cut many in the late 19th century; eventually taking as many as one-third of the ancient trees. Unimaginably, some of these irreplaceable treasures were made into pencils and grape stakes.

On our last morning we packed up and headed for home driving down through the Giant Forest area. A mother bear and her cub were walking along the edge of the road looking happy and content. And it occurred to me that only a few days, in the wonderful place those bears live, had made my offspring and me just as content as the bears.

Contact Deborah Wall at deborabus@aol.com