twisting roads towards the Sequoia National Park
Well you shouldn’t trust your GPS and check the route first. So it happened that we got on a crazy narrow, windy street going up on 1500 m (5000 ft) and down on 600 m (2000 ft). This road was definitely not so suitable for our 5th Wheel and after 5 hours sweating we made it to a nicer road.
Arriving at the Park we left our 5th Wheel at the campground and enjoyed the mountainous road without the trailer.
Standing in front of those giant Sequoia trees was just astonishing. Even if the Sequoia is not the tallest tree in the world it is the biggest in volume. Those old gigantic trees surrounding us are between 2000 and 3500 years old.
Their tough and fire-charred bark is the secret for their age. During a big fire the seeds open up and other trees burn down. Without the other trees surrounding them they got sun and water to grow bigger and wider.
The Park is black bear country and we found warning signs everywhere. We even had metal storage boxes at the campgrounds and parking lots to keep the food out of the car. Bears like especially baby seats so you shouldn’t leave it in the car. But how likely is it to spot a bear?
And suddenly we saw three black bears. Two stayed really close (about 40 m / 130 ft) and where busy eating acorn. So we enjoyed their company with an Australian group with travel guide for over 45 minutes while the bears where eating and climbing up the trees.
This was just fantastic and definitely our highlight!