The Giant Forest

After being snowed in at Grant Grove the day before, we ventured out in our last day of touring and headed to the Giant Forest - our intended destination for the previous day. If we were there in June, we would have been able to make a short, awesomely scenic drive through dramatic Kings Canyon and arrived at the Giant Forest after less than 30 miles. It being March, that convenient road was closed, probably buried under 20 feet of snow. Instead, we headed west out of the park and began our morning of very very curvy roads. We went down down down. After about five mile and 30 curves, we had left winter and were into spring. The valleys were filled with wild flowers. The streams were babbling. The cows were mooing. Hard to believe our escape from snow was that quick. Though the fear of sliding off the formerly icy road had disappeared, the curves continued. After the thousandth curve we reached the valley floor, drove through miles of orange groves, and swung around on the connecting highway to run into the park from the south. Then it was the reverse. A thousand curves. Up up up. And all of a sudden, spring disappeared. A bit of snow showed up in the shadows. Then boom! We were right back into the deep freeze, ten foot snow drifts. And the huge sequoias began. One after another. We learned that the Giant Forest has over 1,000 sequoias over 10 feet in diameter. This compares to Mariposa and Grant Grove having around 100 each. We will have to return to the Giant Forest soon to continue our exploration.

This trio of giants was right by the parking lot, sort of like the greeting committee!
Here's one of several information kiosks. You would have to want information really badly in order to dig it out here!

This is the scene just outside the museum, with the flag pole lending a bit of additional scale for the giants.

The museum is dwarfed in the background. The tree show is famous enough to have a name: "The Sentinel".

This is the base of the General Sherman - advertised to be the biggest tree in the world - measured in the volume of the trunk. Some tourists respected the fences and the rules to stay away from the bases of the giants (the roots are damaged by soil compression around the base). Some did not. I figured with so much snow piled up that no roots would be damaged by non-tree hugging tourists.

That's Jacob posing on a foot bridge crossing a stream, surrounded by giants. We were exploring on a path deeper into the woods, distancing ourselves from most of the crowd in the General Sherman area. There were still a few families braving the deeper snow so we weren't completely alone.

Many trees in the Giant Forest showed dramatic fire scars, and quite a few were just burned out trunks. This area must have experienced a raging forest fire recently.

We were deep in the forest when the snow started to fall. It was beautiful watching it waft down through the branches. We enjoyed it for a few minutes and then started to think about the consequences of getting stuck here if the roads iced over. We were reluctant to cut short our visit, but after a bit more exploring we headed back to the car.

This cross section was on display near the Sherman tree. I imagine that during the summer there is a sign visible that gives more explanation.

The General Sherman tree stands in the middle.

This is at an overlook about half way back down the mountain on our way home from the Giant Forest. Though we have exited winter, it is still a bit too cold to declare it spring.

Near the base of the mountain we stopped at an area called Hospital Rock. There was a nice information center explaining the various tribes of Indians who had lived in the area. Near the huge rock, there was a horizontal low-lying rock which showed the holes Indians used as their mortars when grinding acorns. Oh yes, there was great bear signage...but no bears.

This is Hospital Rock. The red markings on the rock are thought to have been made by Indians, though nobody has been able to explain what they mean.

The Snowy Day in the Grove

We woke up in the John Muir Lodge at Grant Grove to an extra wintry sight - the snow was coming down fast and hard! We thought this was a nice little twist for our vacation, sort of like icing on the cake. We got dressed and started making our plan - grab some breakfast at the restaurant, and head over to the Giant Forest part of the park and check out the museum while the snow was coming down. This plan lasted until I actually started clearing the snow off the car (about six inches) and found a thick layer of ice underneath. We drove over toward the restaurant and determined that if we stopped in the car for long, it would have to be scraped off again. That's no fun on a vacation! So I ducked into the store and got some muffins while Nancy checked in with the rangers to find out what road to take to the Giant Forest. Jacob and Nancy look forward to an exciting day in the blizzard!

In the meantime the surrounding roads were changed to "chains and 4 wheel drive" required, essentially stranding us at Grant Grove. The ever resourceful Nancy instantly came up with the idea of snow shoes, so it was off to the nearby market to rent snow shoes. The "helper" at the market didn't really know anything about snow shoes, other than to strap them around your boots. She seemed clear on which one was the right and the left, but even that didn't make the greatest sense. We went with it, and hoped we didn't need any training or instructions for snow shoeing. Nancy tracked down a map of snow shoe / skiing trails in the area, which we decided would be of some value if you had a guide for the first lap or two. As it was, we were blundering around in the blizzard, which really wasn't bad at all. We grabbed some cheap umbrellas from the gift shop just to keep the blowing snow from blinding us.

We loved snow shoeing around Grant Grove. We were the only ones there for a long time and there was something magical about that.

Our snow shoes were made of high impact plastic, formed into a grid pattern. Rows of metal cleats dug into the snow directly below the ball of your foot. Though your foot is strapped in also at the heel, the shoe pivots up and down there, just like a cross country ski. This is important to know, because a step backwards is a recipe for disaster. I know Jacob and I both took spills when we forgot the rule to only walk forward. Sliding side steps were also bad ideas, as the snow shoe would dig in and your body would continue sideways.

This is the famous General Grant tree (in the center) which is called the second largest tree in the world - based on the width of the trunk.

Jacob and Jim (maybe!) stand inside the tree trunk for a moment of shelter from the snow.

Later in the afternoon the snow storm stopped and the blue skies took over. We went for a bit of a hike up the hill, topped by a grove of trees gleaming in the sun.

We walked by a group of empty cabins which must be lovely -and full - in the summertime. I can imagine them surrounded by cars, making this "No Parking" sign make more sense than it does now.

A Journey to Grant Grove and the Big Snow

We woke up outside of Yosemite to the sound of pouring rain. We packed up and were happy to be escaping that weather - after all, we were on spring break so we shouldn't have to put up with any rain! Someone in the restaurant that morning mentioned that snow was in the forecast. That sounded impossible to us, since we had been heating up in the sunshine for two consecutive days. We were headed away from the rain, and enjoyed the beautiful views along the way.
When we pulled off the highway into the Grant Grove area, it was like arriving at a snow hole. Granted we had climbed a few thousand feet, but the amount of snow that was piled up was incredible. The workers at the visitor center assured us it had not snowed for several weeks, and the weather had been "spring like". Out of the other side of their mouth, however, they mentioned the possibility of more snow, the stories ranging from an inch to six the next day. Preposterous! But when you're surrounded by mountains of snow, you get the nagging idea it could be possible.

This is the frozen snow slide cascading off the visitors center roof and curling into a true art form into a snow pile.
The snow is layer upon layer, visible by the sides of the roads and on roof tops.

Grant Grove was like a playground for Jacob. This hollow log (cored out by fire many years ago) was angled up a hill. Jacob was determined to crawl up through it, and incredibly emerged without any sign of soot or cinders. The camera had a difficult time handling the contrast between the jet black truck and its interior, and the surrounding gleaming white snow.

Note the little bitty people to the right of the base of the tree below.

This sequoia trunk has been a hollowed out structure since recorded history of Grant Grove, beginning in the 1880s or so. It is a testament to the stability of sequoia wood over time. It has been used as a shelter, office, saloon, stable, hotel and restaurant. The center hole used to accomodate a chimney.

The Twin Sisters. Sequoias often grow in groups, as they germinate in the aftermath of forest fires and the seeds thrive in the fertile ashes of other sequoia trunks. Mutliple sequoias can fuse trunks, and also share root structures.

Yosemite Reflections

There are many vivid images to capture in Yosemite. A trip there is a genuine memory maker. This first image is Jacob posing next to John Muir, the famous naturalist, in the Yosemite Village Visitor Center. Muir was a leader in the crusade for protecting Yosemite and the surrounding areas from development and exploitation in the 1880s.

Every morning we approached Yosemite from the El Portal entrance. As if the curves, views and forests didn't offer enough drama, the road splits and our lane sneaks between these surrounding rocks. There is not much room for error as the gap is barely wide enough to allow for the yellow lines on either side of the lane.

We were surrounded by many textures of nature. The bark of many trees demonstrated incredible varieties of texture. The sequoias sport a bark that is extremely thick and topped with what almost seems like fur. The picture below is of a ponderosa pine, with thick bark that fits together in a puzzle pattern, with each piece of bark marked with what looks like a jigsaw puzzle.

Half Dome is visible from so many different places in the valley. With its position of prominence, it reflects an every changing play of light.