BIG TREES!

We arrived at Sequoia National Park around 2:00.  We had a picnic lunch, stopped by the Visitors Center and headed off to find some big trees.

 

 

We took a 4 mile hike in the late afternoon, that as of this point, goes down as my favorite hike of the trip.  We started in the populous area of the infamous General Sherman. 

 

 

 

Then we hiked the Congress Trail. 

 

 

 

 

As we hiked along, reveling in the big trees surrounding us, we saw some people stopped on the trail in front.  They had spotted a bear!

 

 

We stood and watched in silence while the bear happily frolicked around, ripping the bark off logs and eating bugs and leaves.  It was amazing. 

 

 

It was so cool to see such a big wild bear, though it didn’t seem so big against the backdrop of a giant sequoia.

 

 

We then continued on our way, stopping for more pictures with the big trees. 

 

 

 

 

Then ahead of us, right after this picture was taken,

 

 

we spotted ANOTHER BEAR!  MUCH CLOSER this time.  In fact, he was ON THE TRAIL ahead of us… maybe about 30 feet away.

 

 

Thankfully, we were with another family of four, so the 10 of us made a rather large group.  We stood and watched in excited silence.  He was on the trail so we weren’t really sure how we would get passed.  It eventually (after a long time) meandered off the path and we walked quietly and quickly as a group and passed him.  It was that combination of super awesome and freaky all at once.  Incase anyone was wondering, this is the face I make when walking past a bear while hiking.

 

 

Shortly after we reached a fork in the road.  Our new bear companions were continuing on the Congress trail, we were heading off on the Alta trail.  The Alta trail was incredible.  No longer on a paved path, we were walking in the woods.

 

 

We didn’t come across another human (or bear) for the rest of the path.  It felt like we were in another world.  Scott kept imagining what it would have been like to be an Indian living in these woods hundreds of years ago.  Since the Sequoias are about 2000 years old, we were walking beside the very same trees the Indians would have walked among. 

 

 

When we finished our hike and headed back to our van, we were the last car in the parking lot.  When we had parked there hours before, we were in overflow parking with cars upon cars looking for a place to park.  Now, we were alone.

 

We then set off towards our campground, but we were all ready for some food.  We found a market near a visitor center which was just about to close.  When I ran in while Scott and the kids parked, they took the order in front of me and said, “Last order”, and turned me away.  But when Scott came in a few minutes later, he asked if there was any chance they could serve us anything, they obliged.  What a blessing!  We happily chowed down on some chicken sandwiches and tenders (we said we would take whatever they had that was easy), just thankful to have dinner.   Then we drove on to set up our tent in the dark. The stars were beautiful.  Walking to the bathroom, we spotted the big dipper between the tall trees.  It was gorgeous.

 

 

We had had a wonderful time in Sequoia National Park.