2024-03: Sequoia National Park

Milestones:

• 15th camping trip in 15 months. SHOW ON MAP
• 2nd time camping in National Park (SHOW 1st)
• Camped in 2 out of the 9 National Parks located in California (SEE THE PREVIOUS).
• 10th county in California solo-camped.

FUN FACTS

• The park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet above sea level.
• The park is notable for its giant sequoia trees (in the “Giant Forest”), which contains five of the ten largest trees in the world.
• For a time, the park was managed by US army troops of the 24th Regiment of Infantry and the 9th Regiment of Cavalry, better known as the Buffalo Soldiers, led by Captain Charles Young (the third African American West Point graduate).

The Journey

I struggled to get an accurate weather forecast. I got worried because I was so close to the snow line. Thankfully, I was a few thousand feet elevation below the really cold temperatures.

What’s most amazing was that my original campsite reservation was a 30 minute drive away from the location I ended up at. My first reservation was cancelled by the park rangers for maintenance, so I had to quickly rebook. It ended up being 1000% better campground, way closer to the “Giant Trees”. If it hadn’t been for the cancellation, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this trip as much as I did. … I wonder how THAT happened… (wink wink)!

This is the Kaweah River. My campsite was 100 yards from one of the forks of this river.

There was a long line of cars waiting at the entrance to the Sequoia National Park. I waited probably 15 minutes just to confirm my reservation. Most everyone else were day-trippers and looky-loos, who were going to drive around, take some selfies, and go home.

I arrived at my campsite and got setup. I was ready to get back on the road by 2:30 pm. It was sunny and 58F at my campsite. Just gorgeous.

As soon as I started unloading my car, the Camp Host came over and introduced himself. He was a nice guy. His name was “Huck”.

I told Huck that I wanted to see the General Sherman tree. Measured by trunk volume only, the General Sherman is the largest tree in the world at over 52,000 cubic feet. Huck warned me that there might be snow restrictions. That didn’t slow me down any.

The one-way drive was 1 hour long, 14 miles , climbing from 2100 ft up to 6900 ft. There was snow on the ground when I got above 5000ft. When I got within 2 miles of General Sherman, there was a flashing sign that said, “Snow Tires or Chains required beyond this point”. A dozen cars were pulled over and people were obediently following instructions. I drove past them without even tapping my brakes.

The Sequoia’s are “awe inspiring”. Words don’t do them justice…. these pictures don’t do them justice. You just have to see them firsthand in order to appreciate their beauty.

This is the “General Sherman”:

This is me and the General.

I got back to my campsite around 5:00 PM, and immediately started making dinner. I was starving. I boiled water for a freeze-dried meal of “Chicken Fajita Rice Bowl”. I then fired up my solo-stove and cooked a Bratwurst and had some Naan to go with it. I was finally full. I went to bed after dark and had a great night’s sleep.

I woke up at 6:30 AM and heard this turkey gobbling from the next campsite over. I got my camera, snuck up behind him, and took his picture. He was a full-grown adult male, maybe 20-25 pounds. Later I saw 2 more just like him. Turkeys are beautiful birds, and they are only found in North America.

I hustled to break camp and drive off in the morning because my friends Les and Joyce Carlsen, and their mom live in the town of Tulare, which was only 75 minutes drive away from my campsite. I was unshaven, I stunk, I was wearing my “camping pants” and my hair was a mess. They graciously accepted me into their home, despite my unseemly condition. We had a great time.

Lessons Learned:

• As I was falling asleep in my tent, I had the following thought: “Avoiding poverty doesn’t make me happy, avoiding sickness doesn’t make me happy, avoiding risk doesn’t make me happy. But, ‘Living Well’ definitely makes me happy.” Of course, avoiding negative things is certainly a wise thing to do, but true joy comes from all the positive things we do to grow mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Post-Scripts:

• An estimated 20% of all the mature giant sequoias in the world have been lost between 2015 and 2022, when wildfire magnitude and severity sharply increased in California’s Sierra Nevada. Many of these trees were more than 1,000-3,000 years old. See my trip to Shaver Lake for an example of the huge impact of the 2020 Creek wildfire.
• For the first time, on May 21, 2024 researchers climbed the General Sherman tree for evidence of bark beetles, an emerging threat to giant sequoias. “The General Sherman tree is doing fine right now,” said Anthony Ambrose, executive director of the Ancient Forest Society, who led the expedition. “It seems to be a very healthy tree that’s able to fend off any beetle attack.”