Day 10 – Sequoia and back to San Francisco
Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Brad Cansler in He-Said-She-Said
We had breakfast at the picnic area again and then set off for Sequoia National Park. We had a lot of ground to cover today. Not only did we want to see Sequoia (we were supposed to be here yesterday) we have to leave by 3:00 pm to get back to San Francisco because we have a 6:00 am flight to head back home in the morning. We stopped as several pretty spots along the way. There is no end to the beautiful areas through here.
The ranger at the visitor center made a great recommendation about where to park and hike. She suggested that we park at Crescent Meadow, take the shuttle to the General Sherman Tree and then hike back to our car. She also said that several people had seen bears on these hikes. It is about a three and a half mile hike through the forest and around the meadows. The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree – by volume – in the world. We picked up a great post card that really gives you a perspective on size.
We took the Congress Trail and stopped at several of the named trees like, The President, The Senate, The House, and Sydney walked around inside The Room Tree. We really enjoyed the hike. We saw our first bear when we got to Circle Meadow. It was a light brown color and quite a ways from us. I would say it was a brown bear but you can’t call it a brown bear; all the bears here are supposed to be black bears – even in they look brown.
At the other end of Circle Meadow, we saw our next brown bear. We stopped to take some photographs and he was much closer to us. In fact, the trail that we were on would go right next to where he was. As we stood and watched, he started walking towards us. We walked slowly away, fortunately the path arched away from the bear. He was neat to see but that was close enough! As we crossed the meadow, there was another bear not far from us and as walked back into the forest, Sydney looked back spotted a large black bear. This makes bear four on our hike and number seven for the trip.
After we made it back, we drove to Moro Rock and hiked to the top. It is a steep 1/4 mile of 400 steps up and has a 300 foot rise. We were huffing and puffing – along with everyone else young and old but the view from the top was spectacular. You have a 360 degree view of everything from the snow capped mountains to the San Joaquin Valley toward Fresno.
When we came back down it was past time to leave. Instead of 3:00 pm, it was 5:00 pm and we had at least a five hour drive ahead of us – as long as we didn’t stop. We hoped we would hit San Mateo in time to eat at Poncho Villa again but it was 10:30 before we made it there and they closed at 10:00. Finally, we made it to our hotel by the airport. Our supper consisted of the warm chocolate chip cookies that the Double Tree gives you when you check in. Sydney ate her cookie and jumped in bed while I packed everything for the trip home and Brad copied off the photographs. Sometime way after midnight we were all in bed.
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