Saturday
Still sore from yesterday’s expedition and after another cold night in Yosemite, we pack and hit the road again. We’re not done with the park though, before going to San Francisco, we planned on stopping by to see Bridalveil Fall, Inspiration point and more importantly, the giant sequoias of Mariposa grove. When we arrive at Bridalveil’s parking, it’s full and there’s a bunch of cars waiting for a parking spot… We decide to skip it and go the next item of the list.
Inspiration point offers a splendid view of the main valley of Yosemite. Sadly it’s on the main road leading into the park so it’s overrun by tourists. If you’re brave though, a quick hike takes you higher up in the mountain to reach the old road used by diligence back in the days. We fall back into our climbing rhythm and an hour later we reach the ancient inspiration point. It’s nice, quiet, in the forest, higher up, we’re alone and the view is better…what else could we ask for? You can still see the old road and the place where they were stopping to allow their passenger to have their first look at Yosemite.
Next stop : Mariposa grove and its famous giant sequoias. It’s a very nice guided walk with lots information panels. The beginning is a bit crowded but the grove is big so after 10 minutes we’re far enough from the crowd. One of the first noteworthy sequoias we come by is famous because of human stupidity. A century ago, they thought it would be a good idea to dig a tunnel through the tree so cars could pass. The tree lived through these mutilations but to see its internal structure exposed like that is very disturbing. It feels like vandalism…
The sequoias are impressive. Their height and width are off the scale. Furthermore they have surprising characteristics. Trees that big need a lot of resources and so they tend to grow apart from each other. Sometimes though, 2 trees will start growing close to each other. When that happens, instead of fighting for resources, they merge their roots and share the resources, growing side by side. As they widen, their trunks are getting closer and closer to each other and they begin merge their trunks as well. The most famous of these couple is the Faithful couple. From the ground up to 15m, their trunks are one. The bark is growing around both trees like they were one. It’s incredible. In front of them, on the other side of the trail, there’s another couple, younger. They haven’t started merging their trunks but if they keep on growing at a normal rate, they should start the process in about 50 years.
Another distinctive feature of these trees is their relation with fire. Lots of them have a part of their trunk burnt. It creates a huge cavity at the base of the tree but strangely it does not kill the tree. They keep on growing, the rate is slower that’s all. But fire has a direct benefit to them; it kills the competition. Last century, we started to put out forest fires and it allowed lots of other species to prosper. The young sequoias are not very competitive so the population of new sequoias began to collapse. Realizing that, now the park rangers trigger controlled fires on a regular basis to create a environment more suitable to sequoias.
During our hike in the grove, we got to see two funny animal life scenes. We were walking in a very quiet part of the grove when we start hearing something hitting on wood. It takes us a few minutes to localize the origin of the noise and identify the culprit – a woodpecker of course! It was happily drumming on a dead tree. We stay quiet and observe the scene for a few minutes when we spot a squirrel on the same tree, behind the woodpecker. The squirrel approaches stealthily the bird from behind then rushes it, taking the poor bird totally by surprise. Trying to stay as dignified as possible, the woodpecker takes off while protesting against the very bad joke the squirrel played on him. On the way back to the car, we stumble upon a small group of tourists stopped in the middle of the trail. In front of them, 2 deer are eating the leaves of a fallen tree. The two deer glance at us every now and then but don’t look too concern with us being so close. We watch them for a good 10 minutes then decide to pass by them as innocently as possible, sticking to the other side of the trail. Around 10 persons will pass by them like that, and all we’ll get from them are indifferent looks in between two servings of fresh leaves… the wild life is not that wild in Yosemite.
It’s almost 4pm and we still have a good 4 hour drive to San Francisco. We would have loved to spend more times with these giants but sadly it’s not possible. A part from a quick stop for coffee in a super kitsch dinner, the road to S.F. will be completely event-less. Back to the civilization, it’s time for us to get rid of our hobbits feet with a good shower, and to broaden our culinary world again with some sushi!