September 2014 – Parks & Lex

Lassen Volcanic National Park (one year ago)

September 24, 2014January 3, 2018parksandlex@gmail.com

lavo15 Flipping back through my passport book, I was reminded that a year ago I took my introductory trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park in (more) Northern California. Lassen is almost like you took the highlights from Yosemite/King’s Canyon and the Sierras and mashed them up with the best geothermal features of Yellowstone. They’ve got it all! Mountains, volcanoes, forests, fumeroles…

We stayed at Drakesbad GuestRanch, a rustic lodge & cabins in the Warner Valley area. It’s a wonderful place to get away from it all for both families and travelers without kids. The rate includes all three meals (all yummy), including a box lunch if you plan to be out and about, and they have a variety of activities, such as horseback riding, fishing, games, and a pool heated by the nearby hot springs. Another cool fact – Drakesbad is approximately half-way between Mexico and Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail, so keep that in mind if you’re ever lavo02 inclined to lavo03 take that trip on!

One of the highlights in the Warner Valley area is the Devils Kitchen, and area filled with fumeroles and boiling mudpots. The trail leaves from a boardwalk across the meadow from Drakesbad and meanders through woods until you reach the unmistakable kitchen area, wherein the trail loops through several active areas. You can certainly smell it when you reach the kitchen as well!

lavo16 — Bumpass’ Hell. These days there are boardwalks to keep us from suffering Bumpass’ fate, an early settler whose leg fell through the crust while leading a party through the area. Plans are in the works for new boardwalks to help protect park features and patrons.

It was a pretty good time of year to visit, right at the end of the season, although temperatures were definitely dropping. There may have been an afternoon we opted out of hiking in the freezing rain to play Scrabble by the fire in the Drakesbad common room.In fact, the road into the main part of the park was temporarily closed at that time due to snow at higher elevations. The next morning, however, proved a perfect time to swing through the main road and explore Bumpass Hell, view Lassen Peak (only accessible to visitors select weekends out of the year), and check out the visitors’ centers.

Now that I’m writing this, I’m realizing I need to plan another trip to Lassen – next summer perhaps?

Princess Campground, Sequoia National Forest

September 14, 2014parksandlex@gmail.com

seki03 — Princess Meadow in Sequoia National Forest

As a final post about our recent trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon, I wanted to add to my “occasional series” on campgrounds and lodging. I had originally decided on Kings Canyon for our Labor Day weekend trip specifically because most of the campgrounds in the national park proper are first come-first serve, so I could be late to the planning party but at least in the same boat as everyone else! As the week went on, I got a little nervous we wouldn’t make it in time from the Bay Area to secure a campsite Friday afternoon, so I started checking for cancellations and snagged a reservation at Princess Campground in Sequoia National Forest. FYI, there was in fact still availability in the NP around 5 pm when we arrived, but it definitely filled up sometime that evening.

seki06 — Peeking back at our campsite from the Indian Basin trail

seki32 Princess is in a great location just about a 10 min drive past Grant Grove on CA 180 and a half hour from Cedar Grove. It is technically in the National Forest, but you do have to pay the NP entrance fee to get to it by road. It was actually a great location for being able to explore both Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks (at least those areas accessible by road from the west). The campsites were generally more spread out that what I saw in Cedar and Grant Groves, and some had a decent amount of privacy among the trees. We were in the “Shining Cloud” loop at site #50, which was ideally situated between some trees and had a nice open area out the back leading toward Princess meadow. The sites on either side of us also seemed pretty nice, although they were nearer to the other loops on one side or the bathroom (pit toilets) on the other. At the campsite, we had company from chipmunks, Douglas’ squirrels, and a little bat in the evenings!

Behind the campground is the meadow, which was quite pretty with a little grove of birch trees. The “Indian Basin” trail is a short interpretive walk around the area (a shorter paved loop and a longer partly unpaved loop). When we took it Friday afternoon when we arrived, we saw some grazing cattle and one of the highlights of the trip – a bear! I haven’t seen a bear in CA in several years, and Jason never has, so this was quite exciting. We and the cows watched him meander by on the hillside to the far end of their grazing grounds. Good inspiration to be vigilant about using the bear box back at camp!

cows — Cattle grazing on the Indian Basin Loop

bear! — Bear sighting! Didn’t manage to get my zoom on before he went behind the trees.

All in all, I’d definitely return to Princess on my next trip to the area, but they are only open in the summer and closed after Labor Day this year, so it’ll have to wait until next season!

seki31 — Beautiful morning out the tent door!

Sequoia & Kings Canyon: Part 2 (Redwood Mountain Grove, General Grant, and Cedar Grove)

September 10, 2014January 3, 2018parksandlex@gmail.com

seki28 In my last post, I featured spots in Sequoia National Park, but it turns out, Kings Canyon holds its own when it comes to giant sequoias in addition to having gorgeous valleys, granite canyons, and meadows.

Grant Grove

seki30 — A close up – that branch alone could be a huge tree!

seki29 — General Grant peeking through the trees

Grant Grove is just north of the Big Stump Entrance on CA 180 from Fresno. It is home to the famous “General Grant” tree, wider at its base than General Sherman and named after Ulysses S. Grant, who was of course still kicking when this giant tree was named. There is a short interpretive trail in the area around General Grant where you can walk through the Fallen Monarch that was used as a shelter and saloon in the 19th century, but of course this is one of the spots in the park where you get big crowds of people. The Grant Grove area contains a visitor’s center, market, lodging, and camping. I’ll admit, the restaurant makes good pizza if you happen to be out hiking longer than you expected and don’t feel like cooking at camp!

Redwood Mountain Grove
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seki16 — Could this be what’s left of the Fallen Goliath?

Redwood Mountain is the largest sequoia grove in the world and (since the parking area is 2 miles down a windy dirt road) a great way to enjoy the sequoias in relative solitude on a day hike. We encountered just a handful of other hikers and a few families backpacking in the canyon, and there was evidence that horses also use the trail. There are two 6-7-mile loops that both cut back down the creek in the center, or you can combine the loops for a ~10-mile larger loop. There is a 1100-1400 gain over either route, but it was relatively gradual. We started along the central creek trail then turned left to take the Hart Tree and Fallen Goliath Loop — and almost managed to miss both landmarks! You can see the picture of what we thought the Fallen Goliath sign was pointing toward, but we were under the impression it should have been bigger. I did find a local news article from April of this year about a fire in the Fallen Goliath, but no other sources confirmed that a fire might have consumed a majority of the tree. It’s possible we just missed it. A mystery!

seki18 — Thanks to our fellow hikers for helping us find and take a photo with the Hart Tree!

seki20 — Nice view from a rocky area on the Fallen Goliath & Hart Tree loop

We were just thinking we may have also missed the Hart Tree, one of the 25 largest sequoias, when we encountered another hiker with his 5-year-old son on his first backpacking trip (kid has me beat!) also looking for the Hart Tree. After consulting his map, we turned around and found the tiny little sign pointing to the tree right behind us! It just goes to show how impressive all the sequoias are when you keep having “no, that one is the biggest tree I’ve ever seen!” moments around every corner…

Cedar Grove Area

If you continue East on 180 instead of heading south on the Generals Hwy, you’ll drive down the canyon walls into Cedar Grove and the section of the park that follows the Kings River deeper into Kings Canyon. This area houses the other large campgrounds within Kings Canyon, a visitors center near the campground (where you can find the passport cancellation), and an additional information stand at the aptly named Road’s End. From Road’s End, you can continue on foot 2-3 miles down either side of the river to a bridge. From the bridge, you can return to Road’s End the way you came or down the other side, head up the hill for Mist Falls (apparently “still misting away” this time of year) or head up the Bubb’s Creek Trail to the left.

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seki24 We opted to go out and back just to the bridge along the trail on the south side of the river. According to the ranger we talked to, the north side trail is shorter, but a bit more rocky and exposed, while the south bank wound through trees and was much quieter. Remember the bug spray, though, unless you particularly like breathing in gnats! From where this trail cuts back to the Road’s End parking lot, you can also continue to Zumwalt Meadow (also directly accessible from the road), a beautiful breezy meadow fluttering with butterflies that has trails and boardwalks for all walkers/hikers.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon: Part 1 (Giant Forest, Lodgepole, and the Generals’ Hwy)

September 7, 2014January 3, 2018parksandlex@gmail.com

Finally! It may have taken until Labor Day, seki34 but I finally got a to take a long weekend this summer to visit a new (to me) National Park. Parks actually, since Kings Canyon and Sequoia are two adjacent National Parks managed together. I love the Sierras, and these parks just may rival Yosemite as my favorite NP! There were so many highlights to this trip, that this will have to be a multi-part post.

Giant Forest

First, the “main attraction” of Sequoia National Park. Giant Sequoias are ridiculously huge, and the park has several prime examples of these trees, which are native only to limited areas of the Sierras and live for millennia. Leave it to a Giant Sequoia to make even the 200-ft sugar pine beside it look tiny. The Giant Forest is one of the most accessible groves in the park and home to the “General Sherman” tree, the most massive tree on Earth! There is parking at the Sherman Tree, and it’s also a stop on the park shuttle, which runs every 15 min in summer. From General Sherman, there are paved and unpaved trails that loop through nearby trees. The popular “Congress Trail” has several named trees and groves, including the President, the House, and the Senate, but in all honesty, it’s just as easy to be impressed by the unnamed bystanders. From points along the Congress Trail, there are also trails that lead further into the forest as well as a ~2 mile-trail back to the Giant Forest Museum (if we had planned better, i.e. carried snacks for me, we would have taken the shuttle one way and hiked back).

General Sherman, the most massive tree on earth. He adds the equivalent of a 60-ft tree to his trunk per year.

The Senate group on the Congress Trail (I think – I ended up with a lot of pictures of trees…)

The President, looking quite stately. Chief Sequoyah, also impressive, was just behind him.

Of course, the sequoia groves also provide ample opportunity to spot several little forest critters. We saw several chipmunks, squirrels, and birds, including the white-headed woodpecker below defacing the McKinley tree. While dwarfed by the giant sequoias, it’s also worth noting the other trees of the ecosystem such as the sugar pines, with their long pine cones hanging off the ends of tall branches.

Lodgepole

seki08 Further into Sequoia National Park is the Lodgepole area, which has a visitor’s center, campground, market, and other facilities. Lodgepole is one of two places where you can get tickets for the Crystal Cave tour (the other is the Foothills VC near the southern entrance), but we didn’t have time for that one this trip. If you do plan to go into the cave, read the current restrictions on clothing and equipment before you go as efforts are underway to prevent the spread of white-nose syndrome from bat colonies in the Eastern US.

From Lodgepole, we got our hiking legs warmed up on the trail to Tokopah Falls, a relatively easy 3.6-mile (round trip) trail that departs from the bridge at the end of the Lodgepole campground area roadway. While the waterfall was dry, the trail is a nice shaded path that follows the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River with a little bit of uphill, particularly as you approach the falls area. At the beginning of the trail, we could see where the campground continued up the other side of the river, and it looked like there were some pleasant campsites there. In the late morning, there didn’t seem to be too many insects, which was not the case everywhere in the park – definitely needed some bug spray on this trip!

seki11 — Who needs waterfalls when this is the view in the opposite direction?

The Generals Highway
This scenic main drive winds its way through both parks and allows you to see most of the crowd favorites. Of course, the highway really only graces the Western side of the park, so there’s plenty more to explore on future visits (perhaps if my friends succeed in making a backpacker out of me…). Along the Generals Highway, you can whet your appetite for the backcountry by stopping at some pretty nice overlooks like these:

seki22 — Sunset over Fresno from near Grant Grove

Sequoia Passport Cancellations

Passport stamps are available at Lodgepole & Foothills Visitors Centers (nice bonus stamp, too) and at the Giant Forest museum. There are also reportedly stamps at the Crystal Cave and Mineral King – guess I’ll just have to go back!