And so begins the adventure...: August 2013

We have been visiting Yosemite and Sequoia National Park and they are both amazing. Our first stop in Yosemite was to the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. The tallest tree in this grove is only a mere 290 feet tall.What is surprising about these trees is that they do not have deep tap roots - their roots spread out near the surface to capture water. They are usually no deeper than 6 feet but can fan out more that 150 feet. Rather than go on about these trees, I'll let the photos speak for them:

This is the Fallen Monarch. Biologists suspect that this tree has been down for centuries.

This is the California Tunnel Tree. It was cut in 1895 to allow horse-drawn stages to pass through.

The Grizzly Giant tree. This stands at an elevation of 6000 feet

This is the Faithful Couple and they guard the road.

This tree, like a lot of then, was damaged by fire. It appears that fire is a critical necessity for these trees since the fire burns smaller trees and shrubs that shade out the forest floor and also clears out leaf litter. The trees need direct sunlight, adequate moisture and bare mineral soil. Also the fire dries out the germinated cones and allows the seeds to to fall to the ground and germinate. The sheer size of these trees is amazing. As you all know, Ernie is not a small man and yet he is dwarfed in this tree.

This is a cone from the Sugar Pine tree. They can grow up to 3 feet!!! Oh, I wear a size 10 shoe - not a small foot.

This is the bark of an ancient Ponderosa pine.

We went back to the park another day and took the Yosemite Valley tour. The drive from the park entrance to Yosemite Village, where the tour started, was 27 miles. It took us a little over an hour to drive that 27 miles. While on the tour we saw El Capitan, Cathedral Rocks, Sentinel Rock and Bridalveil Falls just to mention a few of the sights. We were told that even though it is beautiful in the summer, the time to come is in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom and the rivers and waterfalls are full and swift from the snow melt. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The haziness in these scenes is from the Aspen forest fire that burns over 20,000 acres in the nearby Sierra National Forest. It adds a bit of mystic eeriness, don't you think?

The next park we visited was the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. We entered the park through the South entrance and drove to the Giant Forest Museum. Again, a 20-22 miles distance that took an hour to drive. We started at a 1700 foot elevation and ended at the museum at a 6409 foot elevation. This was one of the most challenging, scariest and beautiful drives I've done in a long time. Take a look at the park on Google Earth to get a feel for this road! We took a ranger-quided hike through the Giant Forest. Afterwards, we went to see the General Sherman tree which is the world's largest living tree - 275 feet tall with a trunk weighing an estimated 1,385 tons and its circumference at the ground nearly 103 feet. It is estimated to be 2,200 years old! Its largest branch is almost seven feet in diameter. Every year the General Sherman tree grows enough new wood to produce a 60-foot tall tree of usual size. Again, I'll let the pics do the talking:

This is the bark of a giant sequoia tree. It is very spongy - like cork - and can be up to 2 feet thick. It is very resistant to fire and the heart wood is so high in tannins that insects won't touch it.

Another fallen giant!

The General Sherman tree!

Can you believe that this is wood? This is one section of a fallen giant sequoia.

This sequoia fell centuries ago and is hollow. You can walk through the center of this tree!

This is the General Grant tree. I couldn't get a shot of the entire tree - base to top - so I just shot the top. You can get a feel of it's size by the neighboring trees. It's not quite as old or large as General Sherman.


This tree wasn't a famous listed tree but I thought is was really interesting. It reminded me os an elephant's foot.

In between visits to these parks, we went to the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno. Everyone said it was a must-see in Fresno and we didn't know what to expect. This was the underground home and gardens of a Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere. He was a farmer who worked alone on these structures from 1906 to 1946 and hand-excavated this "home". He even planted his orchard underground. While it is underground, there are "skylights" to allow sun and rain for the fruit. See for yourself: