This one has an “outie” bellybutton!

Today we ventured into Sequoia National Park to pay homage to the great kings of the forest. Not lions or tigers or bears (thank goodness)…but the ancient trees that give the park its name. Billy and I visited the California redwoods on the coast a couple of years ago. We both thought they were a highlight of that vacation, so naturally we were looking forward to visiting their cousins, the sequoias!

Unfortunately, we woke up to more haze/smog this morning. We hoped it might burn off…but it didn’t. The steep winding road to the forest of big trees took an hour to drive. I think there was probably a lot of gorgeous scenery along the way (we ascended over 5,000 feet), but we couldn’t see it. Bummer.

Once we got into the big forest, things got a lot more interesting. The giants rose hundreds of feet from a forest floor dotted with colorful plants in autumn foliage. Things were much greener and magical. We took our time strolling through a trail that took us to see many amazing specimens.

There are a few people on the lower left for scale. The bark was a gorgeous auburn color.

Many pine cones littered the ground. I did my part and picked one up. 🙂 Interestingly, the cone is the size of a chicken egg and compact. The sequoia trunks are enormous and are covered in bark that is up to 30 inches thick. Nothing kills these trees…except falling over. There were several fallen behemoths on the trail and they provided some pretty cool photo ops.

The root system of this tree was close to 10 feet in diameter.

Billy found another hole to crawl into. First we made sure no rattlesnakes were hiding in there!

Autumn is still in full swing in the park. I loved the red veins of this leaf.

As we made our way back to the car we noticed something else interesting. Judging from the amount of time we spent photographing them, one might say more interesting than the trees. Zillions of ladybugs covered the wooden fences, nearby plants, benches, and sadly, the ground. At first we thought all the wet spots on the pavement were from drops of rain and then we realized they were the unfortunate remains of the little beetles.

They were everywhere…watch them in action here.

How could one not feel humbled looking up to such majestic 3,000-year-old living things?

After our ladybug experience we headed to another trail that would take us to the largest tree in the world (presumably). General Sherman is not the tallest (275 feet) or biggest tree around (36 feet in diameter), but it is the largest in volume. Honestly, it was not a impressive as this guy that we saw in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. I only snapped a few shots and none of them really portray any sense of size. It seemed that almost all the other trees were much more interesting.

Tomorrow we will revisit the park to see some of the other areas and possibly hit some of Kings Canyon National Park. Ciao for now!