Gary and Brenda's California Trip

California
San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Muir Woods, Napa and Sonoma Valley, and some Coast

DAY 5, Part 1: Yosemite - Sequoias

A composite of 4 pictures. A redwood or cypress. Can't tell from here.

A three picture portrayal of another sequoia.

A sign near one of the sequoias. Basically, it says that there are specimens of bristlecone pine that are older than the oldest known sequoias, and the oldest sequoias are older than the oldest coastal redwoods. However, there are coastal redwoods that are taller than the tallest known sequoia. Sequoias are heavier per tree than the redwoods. The color of the bark may not be apparent here, but the trees stand out from all of those around them. Sequoia bark looked to be lighter, almost orange, when compared to the incense cypress or redwood.

This is a two-picture composite. It is a picture of a burned sequoia that was carved (I think in the 19th century) to enable people and vehicles to go through it. It is wide enough for 3-4 people to walk through.

Two sequoias.

On Day 4, we had walked down two-thirds of the way to the Sequoias in this valley. We missed the map at the top of the path, or we would have continued. So we decided that before we headed back to San Francisco and Muir Woods we would make it all the way down. The path was covered 75 percent of the time with snow/ice, so the going was slow -- both times. And the path down to the Sequoias and back to the car was about 2.5-3.0 miles. The path was uneven, and the attempts to avoid slipping and falling -- all of it added up to a bad situation for my legs. But we made it. Then we drove to Muir Woods, and on the same day that we saw the Sequoias, we walked about 3 miles through Muir Woods -- paths which were mostly uphill and downhill. The path included steps that were created using blocks of wood, and the steps were filled in with earth. All in all, it made for an uneven path that made it very uncomfortable to walk up the hill. After Day 5, we decided to stay in the car and make short excursions of no more than a 100 yards on level paths.