Yosemite Mariposa Grove

This year Carmen and I decided to go to Yosemite National Park and afterwards Lake Tahoe.  We stayed just outside the South entrance of Yosemite and the first place we visited was Mariposa Grove.  The sequoia groves contain nearly 500 giant trees. 

These trees are over 200 feet high.  The break in the bark of this tree is big enough to hold Carmen inside.

The squirrels we saw were all munching on the pine cones that were lying around.  This one had a mouth full and was still trying to stuff its mouth.

Here is another of the giant sequoia that was along the two mile trail we were hiking.  Notice the size of Carmen as compared to the tree.

After we walked about a quarter mile along the path from the bus drop off, we came to the mile marker for the trail.  Looks like we still have a ways to go.

There were a number of fallen sequoias along the path.  This one had fallen over and you can see the size of the root ball by the man and kid at the base.

Here is Carmen at a downed tree they cut since the tree fell across the hiking path.  This section of the tree was a little higher then half way up the tree and it is still 6-feet across.

Another squirrel taking off each section of the Sugar Pine cone.  The cone was 4 times longer then it was.  It kept trying to move the cone, but it was too big.

Along the trail were several information panels.  This one had information about the cones from the trees in the grove.  The giant sequoia has a pine cone that is less then 3-inches, but the sugar pine has a cone that is over 10-inches.  This for a tree half the height of the sequoia.

Carmen in front of the Bachelor and Three Graces.  This is a large tree and there are three more just a little smaller behind it. 

This squirrel was running and jumping and I caught the squirrel mid jump.

Carmen in front of the sequoia the have named the Grizzly Giant.  You can see that part of the inside is black from a previous fire.  The tree is estimated at 1800 years old and with a fire occurring every 5-20 years you can image how many fires this tree has been through.  The fence is about 30-feet from the tree, but you can still see the size of the tree.  The description of this tree indicated that it is relatively short at 209 feet, as tall as a 19-story building.  It is 96 feet in circumference and 28 feet in diameter.  As you can see from the recurring theme these trees are massive.

Just .2-miles from the Grizzly Giant was this tunnel tree.  This was the second tree tunneled in the grove and was carved in 1895.  Vehicle traffic traveled through the tree along the then park road.  The first tunnel tree fell in 1969.

As we were approaching the top of our hike we viewed this whited-headed woodpecker.  It was only one of the birds we saw along the trail. 

Almost at the museum, which will end up being a 2 mile hike, not to mention a 1000 foot elevation increase.  Besides the hike length and elevation gain, the temperature was in the 90's.  As you can imagine, now that we are Florida residence and live at an 18-foot elevation, hiking from 5600-feet to 6600-feet certainly a test.

On our hike down, we happened by this squirrel, eating to its hearts content.  After we get to the parking lot, ride the bus back to the car, we'll be having lunch also.  Our hike took about 3-hours to go up, with all of the stops, but only about 1-hour to return.  We made much better time going down hill then we did going uphill.