Day 32 Sequoia National Park

Today was a long drive (made even longer by traffic) up north through Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Porterville! The latter is a major agriculture center, and I passed many large orange groves.

My ultimate destination was the Sequioa National Park, renowned for mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, caverns, and the world’s largest trees. I arrived near my campsite at 5:30, and decided to go see the General Sherman Tree before I settled in, not knowing it would be a 50-minute drive through the park to get to the location of the tree. The route was also a winding road, rising in elevation from 2,000 feet to over 7,000 feet. (I have already stated in previous blogs how much I dislike these curving, rising roads with little space to squeeze by the cars driving in the opposite direction.)

The General Sherman Tree is a giant sequoia tree in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park. It is the largest living tree by volume on Earth, although not the tallest. It is estimated to be between 2,200 and 2,700 years old. When I arrived at the parking lot for the tree, I leashed the dogs and started to the half-mile trail to the tree but immediately saw a “no pets” sign. So I put them in the car and jogged to the tree and back. I know this made Gipper mad, because he was really looking forward to peeing on the largest tree in the world.

By the time I got back to the campsite and fed the dogs, the sun was already setting, so we called it a night. I am posting a photo of the tree, as well as some of the views I saw as I drove up to the Giant Forest.