 |
 |
 |
 |
| Campout and Hike to the Adam Tree Mountain Home State Forest June 10-11, 2006 |
Back to Day Hiking May 2004 Trip to Mountain Home July 2004 Trip to Mountain Home October 2005 Trip to Mountain Home Back to Tarol's Homepage |
| On Saturday afternoon Todd and I drove up to Mountain Home State Forest. It is no secret that this is one of my favorite haunts. The Mountain Home Grove is one of the largest giant sequoia groves and it has some of the very largest sequoias. There are views of Maggie and Moses Mountains, the Middle Fork of the Tule River runs along one side of this area, and there are lots of hiking trails and free campgrounds! Best of all, it's never crowded and it's only a 40 minute drive from home :) We drove down to Moses Gulch Campground which is near the river but the only spot available there wasn't very appealing so we drove over to Hidden Falls. There the first and best two campsites were taken so we drove up to Shake Camp. Here we chatted with the Balch Park Pack Station owner for a little bit then drove over to the Shake Camp Campground. Only two spots were occupied but in one there was a barking dog and in the other there was a loud radio playing :p So then we went to Frazier Mill. This campground is the largest in Mountain Home and there we found a secluded site next to a small creek and underneath beautiful blooming dogwood trees and young giant sequoias. We had a nice evening roasting some hotdogs over our campfire and then falling asleep to the sounds of the bubbling creek. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The meadow across from our campsite |
| A stand of young sequoias is on the right |
| Our campsite underneath the young trees and beside a small creek |
| "The stump of a Giant Sequoia in the Frasier Mill Campground that, when it was still standing in the late 1800s, had a crawl hole leading into a large hollow in the center of the tree. It received the name Nero Tree because it had a "totally degraded heart inside a regal exterior". It was cut down in 1903 by John McKiernan, the same man who cut down the Centennial Stump in 1878." From: http://www.geocities.com/troop484.geo/camping/balch_park.html |
| Stream violet, as the name suggests, grows along the creek |
 |
| Currant |
 |
 |
| Dogwood leaves, above Dogwood blossom, below |
| On Sunday morning we got up and I made breakfast burritos. We packed up then headed back over to Shake Camp. Here there is a trailhead for a "2-mile" loop trail going out to the Adam Tree. Well, the trail we took was definitely more than 2-miles; it turned out to be more like 3. And it didn't seem to follow the map. Oh, well, we did pass by the Adam Tree and lots of other beautiful sequoias. The trail goes up a drainage chock full of young and old sequoias then climbs a ridge, crosses a few creeks, then eventually skirts its way up a drier mountainside. It was here that we began to get great views of the higher mountains then we descended and eventually we found ourselves at Shake Camp Campground. I walked along the road for about 1/4 mile back to where we'd left the car and then we headed down the winding road towards home. |
| We were on the main trail... up to this point anyway! |
| This gnarly old tree had a huge fire scar, lots of burls, and a dead top But it's still alive and it's growing a new top |
 |
| This is the Adam Tree, it is huge! Wendell Flint ranks this tree as #21 |
 |
| This mushroom was the size of a softball! |
 |
| Sequoia needles |
 |
 |
| Solomon's Seal |
 |
 |
 |
| The views are far reaching on this part of the trail |
 |
| What a sequoia grove looks like from above Can you see the giants punctuating the forest landscape? |
 |