23/7: Early bird Monday and driving the last stretch to Sequoia National Park. Sierra Nevada really is magnificent.
There has been people for a long, long time.
And they cooked in granite utensils.
My little mom and the Giant Sequoia.
Sometimes you’ve just got to keep growing. Despite the obsticles in your way.
General Sherman Tree. The largest tree in the world, measured in mass.
Impressive. But, if you’ll allow me to exaggerate a little, it was almost impossible to see the tree for all the tourists.
The funny thing was, that only ten minutes walk from General Sherman, we were all by ourselves, me, mom, the trees and the occational deer. Isn’t hiking the whole point of visiting a national park?
They have controled fires in the forest, a way to prevent big fires to start. The ecosystem in Sierra Nevada also needs fire to fuction properly – there are seeds that don’t even start growing before they’ve been heated up by a wildfire.
Mom also got the opportunity to drive through a tree.
Moon over Sierra Nevada.
The general oppinion is that Yosemite is the jewel of Sierra Nevada, the coolest and most beautiful (and also the most visited) national park. But I have to say that I kind of prefer Sequoia National Park. It’s greener and the forest is more impressive. Sure, the fjordlike Yosemite valley with the granite Half Dome is like nothing else – but as a whole, I would say Sequoia is the thing. There are granite domes in Sequoia too, and gosh, they have the biggest trees in the world! Isn’t that reason enough?
Katja Malmborg 