THURSDAY JULY 12th
Woke up early at Upper Pines campground and hit the road again to the Mariposa Sequoia Grove. They had just recently finished a multi million dollar restoration to the area – removing parking lots that were affecting the trees growth. Now you have to take a free shuttle bus up two or 3 miles to the grove from the main parking lot, where well manicured trails of pavement, boardwalks, and dirt allow you to walk around these unbelievably huge trees. When we exited the bus, a “ranger looking” woman was organizing a guided tour of some of the trails, so of course we joined in, as she was furnishing an abundance of information to the ten or twelve people that were interested in what she had to say. After spending about a half an hour with her, we learned she was guiding a private tour (of which we were NOT part of), but she graciously allowed us to carry on with them. We hiked up and saw some of the more famous trees in the grove, and their group turned around and went back the same trail. We looped around and followed a different trail back down.
The huge Sequoias make you feel small and insignificant. The oldest ones tower some 300’ high, and the biggest one here was nearly 100 around the bottom.
