Today we spent time on and off the beaten path. Both were great fun.
We joined the crowds taking the free park shuttle to visit Moro Rock this morning. We hiked up the narrow staircases built right into the rock (thank goodness there were solid hand rails) for views of the amazing mountain vistas. The air quality was good so we could see really far.
This afternoon we avoided the crowds by hiking a “secret” unlisted trail that we heard about from the naturalist at the cave yesterday. This trail is not on any of the park’s hiking guides. She mentioned that one of her favourite ways to beat the crowds was to hike to the Muir Grove. This hike required us to walk through an abandoned campground to access the trailhead. We thought that sounded intriguing so we were sold. Conservationist John Muir was one of the first and strongest advocates for the national parks and this was one of his favourite sequoia groves, so we figured it was likely to be good.
The trail was great; it was the perfect length with some uphill for a challenge. We felt a bit like Katniss Everdeen hiking outside the fence in District 12. We even saw two deer on route, though they didn’t have anything to fear from us as we obviously lack Katniss’ archery prowess and rule breaking personality. We saw lots of unique wild flowers on the trail as we wove through the forest of huge pine trees.
The sequoia grove was spectacular. The purple lupins were in full bloom and completely blanketed the sequoia grove. The entire grove smelled like a flower shop. The trees packed a significant wow factor. They are just absolutely enormous. What an experience. We only saw two other groups during our time in the forest - one group coming out when we were hiking in and the other hiking in as we were leaving. We felt really lucky to have found this hidden gem of Sequoia National Park.
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| Krystal and the field of lupins. |
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| Giving the tree a hug. |
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| The uphill return trip finally tired Ali out (briefly). |
Our evening was spent attending the park’s ranger programs with Ranger Grant. First, for the kids’ program, we listened to him read Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and talked about the similarities between the truffula and sequoia trees. Next, we attended the adult program, where we were treated to a fascinating history lesson about life of General U.S. Grant and some of the other important figures who have sequoia trees named after them. The audience engaged in a lively discussion of whether we should continue to name trees after historical figures and we were really proud of Liam as he chose to speak up to share his opinion with the group. It was a jam packed day.
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| A golden sunset on our last day at Sequoia. |
