Visiting The Giant Sequoias

Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fresno, California, United States
Another up and out early as we were aiming for Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park. We had about a 4 hour drive from our motel to the park traveling south of the mountains and up the west side of the mountain range. We passed though Red Rock State Park and passed by a wind farm that must have had thousands of windmills. We have seen many wind farms in our travels, but never one this large.  

Leaving the mountains and entering the valley, we saw farms of grapes, oranges, lemons, walnuts and trees of undetermined kind . This was definitely the agricultural area of California. At many of the farms workers were busy harvesting the crop.  

 As we entered the park we noticed so unusual looking birds flying from tree to tree. Grabbing our cameras we attempted to get their pictures and found that they were Acorn Woodpeckers who were taking acorns and hiding them in holes in the bark of the trees. Moving from the birds it wasn't long before we encountered a tarantula crossing the road. Of course I had to make sure he got across safely. Apparently they are quite common in Sequoia.  

We finally arrived at the Giant Forest which is the showcase of Sequoia. Towering redwoods stood along the side of the road dwarfing anything nearby. We decided to walk to the General Sherman which was about a mile hike first down the mountain and then back up. High altitude hiking was not our thing. The General Sherman is one of the largest redwoods in the park.  

Unfortunately they are doing major road work in the park and we were twice stopped for over thirty minutes to wait for a pilot car to lead us through the construction.

There were many places to pull off and enjoy the mountains and valleys that make up the park. King's Canyon is an extension of Sequoia and provided more photo ops as we drove though.

As the sun was setting we left the park heading to Fresno hoping that the predicted snow in Yosemite would not spoil our plans to try once again to see the park.

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