Photo Galleries
07.28.07 - Sequoia National Park - Day 3 (General Sherman tree, Dorst Creek, Cresent Meadow, bears, deer, campfire)
Today began with a hike around some of the more famous trees, including the General Sherman Tree which is the most volumunous tree in the world. Yup - it was big.
In the afternoon, Jim, Jill, Sean, Michael and I went to play in the creeks that we had found yesterday afternoon. The water was deep enough that Jim could swim a short lap. After they hiked back up and out of the area, Michael and I followed the stream for another hour or so and then back. It was so beautiful.
After returning, we headed out to Cresent Meadow where we had heard rumors that a momma bear and her cubs tended to go in the early evenings. We met up with the Hights and the Hentzes who had seen the bears on their drive up but not at the meadow. We took the two mile hike, which had some beautiful photo opps. As we neared the parking lot, we heard some rustling and scratching in the brush to our left. As we had just encountered some loud and obnoxious kids, we assumed that, this close to the parking lot, it was more of the same. We were wrong. I rounded a corner and stopped short - speechless - there was momma bear. The three babies tumbled out of the creek and got up onto a small footbridge not 10 feel from where we were standing. As we leaned in to take photos, momma started huffing and growling. We backed up quickly and signalled some people we saw walking the other way to stop. We spent probably 45 minutes following the bears and taking photos. I didn't get any National Geographic type shots but the experience was amazing nonetheless. My adrenalin was definitely pumping.
Dinner this night was barbecued chicken, barbecued corn and barbecued mixed veggies from my garden. Requisite roasted marshmellows followed soon afterwards.