Kings Canyon National Park, CA.

Thursday 4/19/2012

Our 2nd day in Fresno, CA., we headed toward Kings Canyon National Park. Wild flowers lines the center and sides of the highway.

We took Hwy. 180 into the park.

Here again, notice how the clarity is low.

We reach 2000 ft.,

and enter into the Giant Sequoia National Monument once again, but from the northern route.

 

View at 3000 ft.

 

Close up of previous picture. I think the town of Orange Cove is below. Notice the layer of smog above the mountains.

At 4000 ft we reach blue skies above.

View back at the smog filled valley below.

We reach the snow level at 5000 to 6000 feet.

 

We came to the intersection where if you go south, you go to General Sherman Tree. The road was now open. We continued on Hwy. 180 toward Kings Canyon.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and checked out the exhibit and got our maps and information for the park.

We were on our way to General Grant Tree and Grove, when we saw this tree along the road.

Looked like a good picture tree to us!

Joe wanted to show how wide it really was.

At General Grant Grove, we walked the small loop around the grove.

No this is not just another downed tree stump.

Because of the high tannin content the sequoia trees take years to decay. This fallen sequoia tree is well over 100 years old.

The hollow tree was used as an employee camp when the grove was set a side as a National Park in 1890.

Homesteader Thomas and Israel Gamlin used it as a house and tavern to serve visitors in the area. The U.S. Cavalry used it as a stable for their horses.

View of the Fallen Monarch from the other side.

Heading back through.

 

Large open window in the hollow tree.

It even has a sky roof to bring in natural light.

Many people have left their signatures behind.

The loop path around the grove was much easier to walk around than the previous week at General Sherman Tree.

This the General Grant Tree. The fence kept visitors almost 30 to 40 feet away, so it is real hard to get a true visual of it's size. The park does not want people walking around the ground of the tree, because the sequoia tree's have shallow root systems. With the millions of visitors a year, it would cause root damage to the tree. I told Joe the park service need to put a metal picture of a 6 ft man or women standing next to it, so when people took a picture it would show the true size.

 

It was a warm day and snow was melting every where.

 

 

Picture from Photo Point of the General Grant Tree. The tree was named in 1867 after Ulysses S. Grant, the Union Army general and the 18th United State President. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed it the "Nation's Christmas Tree in 1926, because it's base measures 107 feet and thought to be the world largest tree prior to 1931. After 1931 precise measurement proved that the General Sherman, was the largest tree in the world. In 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the tree a "National Shine", a memorial to those who had died in the war. It is the only living memorial to be declared! The General Grant Tree is thought to be around 1,650 years old, and is the 2nd largest tree in the world, only 2nd to the General Sherman Tree. About 16 people could stand in front of the base of the tree for a picture.

As we came around the loop, I took a side photograph of the Fallen Monarch.

 

we headed back to our Honda under a grove of sequoia's

Mallery was waiting for us in the car.

This fence was closer to the grove of sequoia's.

But these sequoia's are babies compared to General Grant Tree. To be continued: