Giant is right! These trees are huge!
Allen found the perfect hike for us. At four miles, round trip, the hike up to the Muir Glen of giant sequoias was long enough for us to feel like we did something, but not so long that we'd be dragging on the way back.
Or should I say it would have been perfect if the campground where the trail begins hadn't been closed. Well we didn't let a silly thing like a closed sign stop us, we parked across the street, ducked under the gate and walked to the trailhead instead. (We made sure to note the sign said, "Campground Closed," not "Do Not Enter," so we felt it was ok to proceed.)
As we walked through the campground we kept seeing these gigantic pine cones, so of course we had to get pictures with them. (One guess which of us are the cutups of the family.) We later discovered they were from sugar pines.
The hike was gorgeous.
There were numerous landscape changes,
each one prettier than the next.
Halfway to the grove the trees opened up and we found ourselves on a granite dome with a lovely view.
Unbeknownst to me, my nephew planned to propose to his girlfriend on the trip - and the dome ended up being the prefect place for him to get down on one knee and ask. (I didn't get any pictures because I had no idea the proposal was coming. Luckily, that was the moment when we met up with the only two other hikers we met that day, and they offered to take a group picture for us.)
Aren't they cute?
Not long after leaving the dome we found ourselves surrounded by giants.
We were completely awestruck by the sheer size of these endangered trees.
Reading about them doesn't really prepare you for just how gigantic, giant sequoias really are. Nine of us were able to get a little more than halfway around this one - halfway!
We'd read that the oldest known giant sequoia came in at over 3,200 years old and it made us wonder, just how old was this tree?
In October 2021, a fire came through this sequoia grove. Many of the trees were scarred by fire, but they survived, and thrived, since these trees need the heat of forest fires to open their cones. This one was burned through, yet it is still growing.
We would have spent the entire day exploring the grove, but other adventures were calling. We had to bid the trees farewell and start the trip back to the car. We all did well until we got back to the campground, because the last mile through the campground was all uphill. For a few of us, fatigue, altitude, and the incline made that last mile, by far, the hardest mile of the day. It was worth it though; seeing those majestic trees up close, was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I'd rank it right up there with visiting the Pyramids of Giza and the Anne Frank House.
