October 2, 2008
Toured Sequoia National Park
Three Rivers, CA
We toured Sequoia National Park and it was totally awesome. The General Sherman Sequoia tree is the largest tree in the world. It is not necessarily the tallest, nor the biggest around, but it has more wood in it's trunk than any other tree in the world. It is 109 ft. around at the ground. I wanted to post the pictures of it tonight, but I don't have a strong enough internet signal to upload pictures. It takes too long, so I will wait until I can do it faster.
I always thought that Sequoias and redwoods were one and the same. I found out different. They are cousins, but the Sequoias are larger than the redwoods. Redwoods may be taller, but they are not as big around. Sequoias are protected and cannot be harvested, but redwoods can.
Anyway, I will post the pictures and give more info when I have a stronger Internet connection.
Love, US
October 5, 2008
Here are the pictures I promised. Enjoy
All along the drive in Sequoia National Park, we saw different stands of Sequoia trees. Some smaller than others, but all of them dwarfed the other trees in the park. It was a beautiful drive and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Other than................................. REALLY steep winding road up to it. The one saving grace was that most of the road had beautiful rock walls instead of guardrails. There were a few places that rock walls hadn't been built yet, but for the most part, it was OK.
Merrell and Chuck at one of the fallen Sequoias that have been made into a tunnel that you can walk through. You can also see the growth pattern (growth rings) on the inside that show you how fast they grow. It's absolutely amazing to think we were standing in and around trees that are over 2,000 years old. It makes you realize how fleeting a human life is.
Merrell, Donna, Madeline, Carolee and Madeline's daughter Ginny. We so enjoyed meeting Madeline and Ginny and wish we had had time to meet the rest of her family.
Merrell was playing hide and seek!!! We saw a lot of the sequoias with these "caves", for want of a better word, in them. We asked a Ranger at the museum what caused them. He said it's fire damage. Sequoias don't burn easily, but they can be damaged by fire. For the most part, when the smaller trees are burning around them, it can cause this kind of damage. If fire is kept against the bark of the tree consistently for long enough, the tree will burn, but when the smaller stuff burns up fast and isn't touching the sequoia, it quits burning. In other words, when the actual flame is removed from it's bark, it no longer burns. I hope you can understand that because I don't want to retype it!! Teeheehee
Merrell "MADE" me get out of the car and run down the road and take a picture of him driving between these two Sequoia trees. Can you believe that???? :>)
One of the other tourists asked if we wanted our picture taken together, so here we are in front of one of the big sequoias.
We were at Madeline Frantz's house and Merrell immediately found the RECLINER. He said that is the one thing he has missed about home........................ LOL
Merrell and Madeline
This was the road leading into the park. We stayed at the closest RV park to the entry to Sequoia National Park, so it wasn't far to the entry, but the actual Giant Grove where the big Sequoias were located is twenty some miles inside the park.
Donna and Merrell in front of GENERAL SHERMAN, the world's largest tree. Makes us look small, doesn't it???? Teeheehee
Merrell and Donna sitting in front of a slab cut off of a fallen sequoia tree.
And you guys thought I couldn't climb. I couldn't let Carolee do it and me not do it!!! Getting up wasn't the hard part, it was the GETTING DOWN!!!! Merrell was going to be Tarzan and put me over his shoulder to get me down, but I could just see both of us lying on the walkway and people laughing, so I climbed down on my own. :>)
Donna and Madeline Frantz. We had such a good visit. It was just toooooooo short. She's a hoot!!!
Chuck and Carolee in front of the General Sherman.
Chuck and Carolee in front of the Sentinel Sequoia, which is located at the museum in Sequoia National Park. It's not as big as the General Sherman, but let me tell you, it's REALLY big!!
Carolee decided she wanted to climb the fence to see if the tree looked any smaller from up high!! It didn't............................
And, whoever led me to believe that California is green lied to me!!! We have seen very little green anywhere in California. The only places that are green are the ones with irrigation, like the vinyards and orchards or some houses have green lawns. Most don't.
