Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Visionquest
May 26 and 27, 2013

Soundtrack:

• Interpol -- Turn on the Bright Lights
• The National -- Trouble Will Find Me
• The White Stripes -- Elephant

My neighbor Rachel told me a few weeks ago that she thought I was on some sort of modern day visionquest.  I suppose it's true, in some ways.  I have definitely been out in the wilderness alone quite a lot these days, and one doesn't enter the forests and deserts of the American West without making a number of discoveries.  I'm not so sure I've had that metaphysical experience a visionquest would imply, but then again maybe that's why I keep getting out there.

The Senate

I had a single goal for this trip: I wanted to see a bear.  I knew I had a pretty good shot at it.  It seems every blog I've ever read online about trips to Sequoia includes seeing bears.  In fact, some people complain about the large number of bears.  Why do people even . . . I mean . . . you know?  I'm sure I'll get into the whole Disneyland Tourist mentality thing in one of these blogs, but for now I'll let it go.

I drove down from Alameda on Sunday morning and entered Sequoia from the South entrance at around 2:00.  Once in the park, the road becomes steep and winding with some breathtaking vistas as it climbs up to the 6,000 to 7,000 foot range.  After the road levels off it enters Giant Forest.  There's a museum and a boardwalk hike, both of which I skipped because of the large crowds.  Even without stopping, though, it's apparent just how unique this place is.  The sequoias seem to almost glow, their bark is so vibrant, and small, lush meadows of bright green are scattered here and there amongst the trees.

General Sherman (in the background)

Driving on, my heart sank a bit when I saw the large crowd at the entrance to the General Sherman Tree area.  I was expecting to see a lot of people on this trip, but I wasn't expecting so many.  These were summer in Yosemite Valley types of crowds, at least that's how it seemed.  It turned out that the park wasn't as crowded as those initial impressions made it appear, rather I was hitting the height of the daily rush at the two most popular spots in the park.  I decided to come back the the General Sherman Tree after getting a campsite at Lodgepole.

"Camping" at Lodgepole

Lodgepole has a visitors center, a store and a snack bar.  My campsite was right across the street from the store.  I guess I should explain my style of camping.  Everyone does it differently.  I'm not a backpacker, so I don't do any back country camping.  It's purely car camping for me, usually quite literally.  I don't normally sleep in a tent.  I don't drive an RV or tow a trailer.  I take out the back seats of my Honda Element (actually, they're rarely seen inside the vehicle) and sleep in the car.  It works well for me.  I lay a cheap foam pad down in the back and, not being the tallest guy in the world, I can stretch all the way out.  Packing up and moving on in the morning is as simple as cleaning out the food locker.

General Sherman

The General Sherman is the largest tree in the world.  If you've come to Sequoia National Park, you've got to see this tree, right?  What I hadn't realized when I initially saw the large crowds was that everyone has this same thought.  So, yeah, there were a lot of people at the tree, but it turns out that most of the people get out of their cars or off the bus, walk to the tree, then walk straight back and leave.  At least that's what was going on the day I was there, because the hiking trails around the General Sherman had few people on them.

The President Tree

More impressive than General Sherman, at least to me, was the President Tree.  It's one gnarly tree.  It's similar to the Grizzly Giant in Mariposa Grove in that sense.  I wish I had been able to capture in a picture what it is about this tree that makes such an impression.  The essence of these big trees seems to get lost in photographs, although I think the spirit of the sequoias comes through a little more than that of the coastal redwoods.  The President is on the Congress Trail, which is a two mile loop that starts and ends at the Feneral Sherman Tree.  It's an easy hike.  The trees are beautiful, the forest is quiet and the air smells amazing.

The Congress Trail

After finishing the Congress Loop, I drove up the road to Wolverton.  It had one of those meadows that are so prevalent in Sequoia and Kings Canyon.  It was pretty, but honestly after the trees of Big Forest I was probably a tough character to impress.  I saw a few mule deer there, but I was hoping for a bear, so if anything I was a little disappointed.  I was clearly ready to light a fire, cook up a couple of dogs and call it a night.

Wolverton

One day down and no bear.  I did see a marmot, though.  I think that was probably a first for me.  I'd see a couple more on my hike to Tokopah Falls the next morning.  Marmots are cute and all, but they can't tear your limbs off.  It's just not the same.  I mean, not that I want to have my limbs torn off.  I always figured I'd see a bear at Yosemite, but it's never happened.

I woke up early Monday, packed up my stuff and drove the short distance to the Tokopah Falls trailhead.  It's a three and a half mile out and back hike up a small canyon that was carved out by a glacier.  It's a fairly flat, easy hike that follows the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River up to the start of the canyon.  There is a rise of about 600 feet, mind you, and you're following a mountain river, so this is a case where flat is a relative term.

Kaweah River, Marble Fork

Tokopah Falls is an interesting sort of waterfall.  It's 1200 feet tall, but it isn't a sheer drop like you'd see with the big boys in Yosemite Valley.  Tokopah meanders down the side of a granite cliff.  Don't get me wrong, it's a dramatic sort of meandering.

Tokopah Falls

It was on my way down from the falls that I saw the bear.  He was by the river at the edge of a meadow, perhaps a hundred yards away, and when I first saw him he was moving right toward me.  I stopped walking, and I imagine I muttered a few curse words.  I have never seen forearms that hairy and that big.  He stopped walking when he noticed me, probably due to my use of golf language.

I don't know why, but whenever I talk about the bear I refer to it as 'he' or 'him'.  For all I know it was a lovely lady bear.  A lovely lady bear with forearms the size of refrigerators.

It was at this point that if I was on a true visionquest the bear would have spoken to me in some way.  He didn't.  He was definitely aware of me.  Like I said, he stopped walking when he noticed me, but he didn't seem all that determined to acknowledge me in any way.  We stood across the meadow from each other for a couple of minutes--me staring at him and clicking away with my camera while he kind of just stood and looked around--then he turned and walked away.

I've reached a few conclusions from this encounter, one of which I'll share with you.  It can't be a real visionquest if you're car camping. That bear had nothing to say to me, I hadn't earned it.  Well, the bear might not be my spirit animal anyway, that just might be wishful thinking.

Seeing the bear was the highlight of the trip.  I wasn't quite done, though.  I drove to the Grant Grove after grabbing a cup of coffee at the Lodgepole snack shop.  I stayed briefly, I guess I'd had my fill of big trees for the weekend.  After that, I drove to the end of ther road in Kings Canyon.  What a beautiful drive.

There's only a single road into Kings Canyon National Park, and it doesn't go very deep into the park.  You've got to hike Kings Canyon to really see it, I guess.  Still, it was a nice drive that follows the roaring South Fork of the Kings River into the park.  I'll have to go back some day to do more exploring.

Roaring River Falls

All in all, it was a nice little weekend trip.  It's hard for me to get out and do overnight trips because Yoshika usually needs my car on Saturdays to transport dogs.  As usual, I barely made a dent in seeing what there is to see in the parks I visited.  Such is as it is.