The air was filled with smoke from the Tehipite fire this morning. Since the the air was still, the smoke just hung there, thick and heavy. By the end of the day, though, it had largely cleared.
We hiked the Redwood Canyon today. There is a two mile dirt road to the trailhead. We took the 6.5 mile Sugar Bowl loop on the western side of the valley. It is known to have the largest grove of sequoias in Kings Canyon, and how.
We had lunch by the creek, which disappeared into the sand 100 m away. Was it the just the end of the season? Or perhaps this is where it ran down into the Lilburn Cave below, which I learned during a USGS lecture by John Tinsley.
Nice hike. Beautiful trees. Young grove.
Lori and Jeep at the trailhead |
Sequoias already! Note the smoke |
A nice shot of the sun shining through the smoke |
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Lori is insignificant standing next to a giant sequoia |
Lori on the trail surrounded by young sequoias and pine |
Thanks to the regular fires that come through here, the forest floor is clear |
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Big Baldy |
A heavily-cropped shot of a butterfly that just would not sit still! |
A dead sequoia |
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Yet another group of sequoias |
Lori and her friends |
A close-up of Big Baldy |
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A matriarch and his progeny |
The smoke has lifted and we can actually see Buena Vista Peak now |
A monkey flower? |
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We stopped at Panoramic Point again tonight in order to get a better exposed shot of the smoke from the fire.
We had dinner at the local restaurant, followed by a park ranger lecture about sequoias. The ranger Ruth Friedman, a native of Mexico City (her dad was from New York), introduced the lecture by saying that she seeked peace, quiet, and fresh air. Kings Canyon is quite the contrast from Mexico City.
No bears today.
The Tehipite fire from Panoramic Point |
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Copyright © 2008 Bill Wohler Last modified: 2008 About photos |
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