Into The Mountains

At first I needed to catch my breath. Then I had a cold. And then finally I was ready to join Andrzej for a trip into the mountains.

It is really nice to have these so close to us. For their beauty, but also for their fresh air . Getting out of the valley is very refreshing. Best thing is that it is not even far to go. Take 40 minutes or so and you are there. In the Sequoia National Park. The park is of course huge so that the bit we travel in is just a tiny part of it. Enormous pieces of forest lie untouched to and only a few regions can be accessed via hiking trails.

 

 

…and a bit higher up. The ‘fogginess’ in the background is in fact smog. It lies in the valley like a blanket.

 

 

Looking out over the world’s largest grove of sequoia trees, some 2100 larger than 10’ in diameter.

 

 

Now I believe this is a Sugar Pine? Look at the size of that cone! I shall come back and correct this once I’m able to verify my information!

 

 

We went up about 6000’ and judging by the markers next to the road they get pretty heavy snow up there. The last of the snowfalls was now only patches of white in shady spots.

 

 

We did drop by at the world’s largest tree, the General Sherman. Size is calculated based on the volume of the tree, not the height/circumference etc)

 

 

 

It was COLD up there…the temperature hovering just above zero.

There will be many more mountain trips, so I’ll be back with more pictures for sure, in the future!