Took my Kid to see the Big Trees
November 9-11, 2013
November 9-11, 2013
| The fallen twin tree - what it looked like before below |
My husband and I took my kid to see my sequoias last weekend. Nick came along for the fun. On the way up we stopped for lunch at the Kern River Audubon Preserve. This is an absolutely gorgeous place to go when the fall colors are in full swing! The preserve is situated in one of California's finest riparian forests. We then made our way to Tillie Creek Campground near Lake Isabella and the first night enjoyed a roaring fire and camp tacos with our good friends Brian and Patty and their son Blake. I was expecting cold temps but it was actually a mild weekend just cold enough for a sweatshirt and beanie :) I was surprised just a few people were taking advantage of such a nice three-day weekend.
On Sunday we made our way up the Kern River and then over to the Trail of 100 Giants - some of my old stomping grounds. We spent several hours hiking and exploring the area... which had changed in one big way. I'd heard a tree fell - turns out it was a huge double-tree that used to be my example of a leaner when I did interpretive walks on the trail. ("How do giant sequoias die? Most of the time by falling over.") But turns out the tree isn't quite dead yet as we saw several small green limbs. Nick and I climbed all over the tree, as did a bunch of other people there. But we also found that you could crawl through it. It was a bit eerie in the tight dark space and we had to go hands-and-knees over the footbridge the tree crushed... a bridge I'd probably walked across 50 times in the past. We thought for a second, had the tree settled completely or would we be crushed? Oh, well, death by sequoia would probably be fitting :p
Anyway we obviously survived and had a lot of fun... as well as immense joy seeing my young son discover the big trees. He liked going inside them, petting and smelling the baby sequoias we found, waving big sticks around, laughing at other people hiking the trail, and picking up "prettily leaves" and "big rocks" :)
On Sunday we made our way up the Kern River and then over to the Trail of 100 Giants - some of my old stomping grounds. We spent several hours hiking and exploring the area... which had changed in one big way. I'd heard a tree fell - turns out it was a huge double-tree that used to be my example of a leaner when I did interpretive walks on the trail. ("How do giant sequoias die? Most of the time by falling over.") But turns out the tree isn't quite dead yet as we saw several small green limbs. Nick and I climbed all over the tree, as did a bunch of other people there. But we also found that you could crawl through it. It was a bit eerie in the tight dark space and we had to go hands-and-knees over the footbridge the tree crushed... a bridge I'd probably walked across 50 times in the past. We thought for a second, had the tree settled completely or would we be crushed? Oh, well, death by sequoia would probably be fitting :p
Anyway we obviously survived and had a lot of fun... as well as immense joy seeing my young son discover the big trees. He liked going inside them, petting and smelling the baby sequoias we found, waving big sticks around, laughing at other people hiking the trail, and picking up "prettily leaves" and "big rocks" :)
photo by Nick
photo by Nick
photo by Nick
| More pics here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/tarol/sets/72157637686753774/ Back to Trail of 100 Giants Kern River Audubon Preserve in 2006 Back to Sequoias Back to Road Trips Back to Tarol's Homepage |
photo by Nick
photo by Nick
photo by Nick
| I photographed his Daddy sitting under this same tree 7 years ago :) |
