braindump

View from Glacier Point

As with previous trips to Yosemite, I always find it hard to leave. Have I bought enough tshirts and Ansel Adams books? Do I need another photo from Valley View or Tunnel View? I managed to tear myself away eventually, having taken the detour to Glacier Point first for the overall view of Tenaya Canyon, Half Dome, and Vernal and Nevada Falls.

General Grant Sequoia

“SeKi” is the Parks Service code for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, two parks that share a boundary and are administered as one. There’s also a bunch of state forest and other protected areas involved as well.  It’s situated south of Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada range.

The drive to Kings Canyon was a lot longer than predicted in my Lonely Planet guide, and I reached Grant Grove Village around 5:30 pm. After checking in to my “rustic cabin” (thankfully with a heater and electricity), I drove the short distance to the actual Grant Grove of sequoia, including the General Grant tree, the widest tree in the world and the second largest by volume. Sequoias are also very tall, not as tall as Redwoods, but tall enough that photographing them is a pain. If only I’d splurged and bought the new Canon 17mm TS-E lens.

My attempt at updating this blog in the evening was thwarted by the wireless being broken. I don’t know how the early explorers like John Muir coped!