Sequoia National Park

After the day trip to the Channel Islands (you can also camp there over night if you like), we drove to the Sequoia National Park. It took like five hours with a stop at the elephant seal vista point (here are more elephant seals from a trip in March). The drive took the entire day and especially the serpentines in the Sequoia National Park during the night were a bit hard to drive.

You might notice traces of fire in the last two images. The Sequoia tree has a special bark that protects it from fire while all others, usually smaller plants around it, die. The Sequoias profit from the more fertile soil after the fire.

As we started hiking, I was excited, that the trail we took was empty and we could enjoy the quiet, huge forest. But as we came close to the highest overview point of the park, Moro Rock, a huge amount of people appeared. You can drive to most important elements in the park and Moro Rock had a large space for parking. You're basically left with 340 steps to go up and don't have bother about hiking to any point. It's the same for the tree with the largest diameter in the world and the largest volume ("General Sherman Tree"). 

Of course, no matter if you drive your car or hike, the view is amazing! So there's way more then just trees in the Sequoia National Park. The King's Canyon National Park is very close, but because of the mountains it takes three hour to drive there!

Meadows are special in the park (they got names, too! Although they're just an area without trees); they grow on more humid areas.