I am in the Sequoia National Park with Nene enjoying gigantic trees and the fresh mountain air.
I've never been to the sequoias before so this was a new experience for me. It really is an amazing feat of nature that these trees grow the way that they do. It looked like a Disney theme park trick or part of a themed land. The bark is so thick that when you know on parts of it the tree almost sounds hollow.
We also climbed to the top of Moro Rock, 4,000 vertical feet above the floor of the canyon and over 6,500 feet in elevation. What does that really mean? Really winding roads! Thank Zeus for not getting car sick!
There aren't a lot of attractions in the sequoias. There are the trees in general, and they are truly awesome in the actual meaning of the word, although they are so big it is actually difficult to grasp the scale of it all. When we visited the sequoia museum we saw a tree they call The Sentinel. It is a tree that stands over 257 feet tall and is about 28 feet wide – and this tree is used to illustrate an AVERAGE size of these amazing plants! When we got to General Sherman, the biggest living thing in the world by size (check wikipedia for a breakdown of how this record works), it stands over 275 feet tall and has branches that are as big as other large trees. Just amazing! There are also very large rocks, like Moro Rock (really part of a mountain), beetle rock and Tunnel Rock which you used to be able to drive through before they rerouted the road.
I have been feeling pretty out of shape and, when you see the pictures you'll see, I've totally got a gut. I'm all skinny fat right now. It's noticeable enough that I have to do something about it (as if a whole day's worth of hiking isn't a good start) but, even still, I found that it was really easy to run, jump and climb all over all kinds of stuff! It was a big relief since I was worried that I'd be huffing and puffing all trip.
All of these elements culminated when we got to the park visitor's center. One of the few major attractions that we planned to visit today was Crystal Cave. It requires tickets so we went to get them, but the Cave was closed. When asked the rangers would only reply that there had been an "incident" and the cave would not reopen until tomorrow. Naturally I, being a fan of solving mysteries, wanted to know more. Information was not freely given, but we did notice an awful lot of ranger activity, and a few arrests happening around the park. Being with family meant that I couldn't go completely Sherlock Holmes, but we plan to head to the cave tomorrow where I plan to solve a major crime, write a book and then get Robert Downey, Jr. to play me in the film adaptation.
I'll keep you in the loop!
See you tomorrow!
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Must have been a bigger incident than we thought being that it was closed down today too! Oh well! We’ll see the cave next time!