Sequoia Serenity

It had been at least as long for me to visit Sequoia National Park as it had been to visit Death Valley. One problem of sorts with doing the two on the same vacation is of course that there is no road THROUGH the Sierras from the southern tip and Walker Pass until the Tioga Pass Road through Upper Yosemite.

I putzed around the morning of Friday, March 27 in the Lake Isabella area after leaving Death Valley. I'd done this briefly once, but more this time, with about 3 hours total. I did see one lifer bird, that theoretically I should be able to see in North Texas — the northern house wren. I saw some bright western bluebirds and spotted California poppies, so I didn't have to worry about skipping Antelope Valley.

And, I hauled ass for Sequoia, where I got about 6 hours or a little more of visitation time, but it was worth it.

Traffic is one issue. I'd driven up through Porterville once, long ago, and long after sunset. Today, early afternoon, through it and Visalia, gack!

That said, I did get the semi-cloying — not quite cloying, but not non-cloying, either — smell of orange blossoms from the groves. Picture orange scented dish soap, aerosolized, with a lighter orange smell, a much lighter, but existent, soap smell, and hints of related smells.

Finally, Sequoia!

I have half as many photo albums as Death Valley. That said, not all are place-based. The "water" album includes not only the rapids of the Middle Kaweah, but a ribbon fall higher in, and water and moss in the heart of the park. 

That would be: 

That. I posted that instead of a rapids photo, because, I do like shooting rapids video, like this:

That was about 3 miles above the Foothills Visitor Center. 

Next, it's off to the good old general — General Sherman. Either I didn't have an ultrawide on my last trip to Sequoia, or I didn't go to the Sherman on that trip. I did this time. With these, like with coastal redwoods, it's the way to shoot. (I didn't think of shooting a brief "pan" video; the day was rushed and of course the site was semi-crowded. It's not like Redwood National Park, where you have to get a permit for the Tall Trees Grove, and the drive to that trailhead is an unpaved road, and the hike to that is a dirt, unpaved trail, all of which control visitation levels.)

Anyway, I went on to shoot other pictures of sequoias, in their own small album, in the Congress Grove and elsewhere, of sequoias, toppled sequoia roots, sequoias burned by the 2021 KNP Complex Fire and more. (I also shot things besides sequoias here, but hang on to that.)

That would lead to the "other flora and fauna" album. I saw a turkey hen just inside the visitor center. I saw several California tortoiseshell butterflies on the Congress Trail, and got a decent photo of one. I heard, then saw, an incessantly chirpy fox sparrow. I saw a bush-like, not tree-like, western redbud among the flora while driving. 

There's the General; it embiggens and is much bigger in the album.

Speaking of generals? I was rushing to get to the General Grant grove before full dark.

But, I did several putz-around stops on the way.

And, it led me to be at Redwood Mountain Overlook just in time for sunset. Views were great. 

You could also see damage from the KNP, which is mentioned specifically in the link above. While editing my photos, and realizing I had not looked for a name for this spot while there, I at the same time realized how much I missed a decade or more of not visiting Sequoia, and even felt a bit sad about rushing the trip. It is different from Redwood State and National in that you have no coast, but you do have mountains. And, as of this point in my life, Lower Yose is just too overrun, plus, even though it's part of nature, the bark beetle deaths near the Wawona Tunnel are a turn-off. Upper Yose is nice, but I think another trip into Kings Canyon, not yet open, but even more sparsely visited than Upper Yose, is my next desire for the Sierras. (I've seen bits of the northern Sierras outside of national parks.)

OK, obviously I wouldn't have much light left for the other general. In fact, it was twilight or nearly so when I got there, and as also noted in the very brief album, I didn't actually see the General Grant. On the trail to it, I missed some sign or something. No worries, I had seen it before. And, what I saw was nice, and tranquil, and quiet, with the bonus of bits of moonlight at about half-phase. 

But, also, the above-average, though perhaps below record-setting at this point, hotting up of the Sierras was cooling off a fair amount with darkness. 

But? I've skipped something, saving the best for last.

I hiked a fair portion of the Congress Trail, the trail that wends generally southward from the General Sherman. And, on the way back, thanks in part I think to quiet hiking, my rushed trip was all paid off on the matter of timing.

There you are.

It's the third time for me to see a sooty grouse. I've also spotted them at Lassen and Rainier. I do think they're almost as "tame" around people as the stereotypically tame spruce grouse. But, as I note in my small album, a lot of people hike less quietly and less observantly. Had I not shushed other hikers on the trail and then pointed, they might not have gotten enjoyment. 

Enjoy a still of this lovely bird below.

And, that's a wrap of that trip, but not of the reflections.

I checked through old vacation notes, and sure enough, it had been even longer since my last visit than Death Valley, which I last hit in 2016.

Sequoia, last visit was 2015, then an 11-year gap before that, to 2004. And, 2004 as well as 2003 was one day, no more. The 2015 trip was fire-season challenged. Kings Canyon was closed.