2012-09-02 Calaveras Big Trees Park

Back to day one in the park, in which we explore the North Grove and hang out by the Stanislaus River, on to day three, with a few notes on the camping

Day 2, we woke up, had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed down to the South Grove, getting on the trail just before noon. The first thing we noticed was that roasted meat on a spit had something to do with Beaver Creek Bridge.

A little over a mile of hiking, and then there's a loop in the trail and an out and back to the largest tree. I'd have loved to bushwack further up the creek to see some of the other trees of note which are less traveled, but by the time we got to the Agassiz tree it seemed like time to head back.

We thought this tree, with the bark falling away in sheets, was an interessting look at decomposition

One of the things that struck us was how normal the big trees seemed after a while, "oh, yeah, that trees just out of scale". Perhaps because of this I had trouble capturing how in a forest of fairly large sugar pines and cedars, the sequoias loomed, here or there a tree that was just completely out of scale relative to the others, but frequent enough that it wasn't totally weird.

In the Yosemite Mariposa Grove, or down in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, the trees are kind of in-your-face. Here the trail winds through a long way, and though it's close to and showcases some of them, in many cases the trees are "just there".