| A view of Redwood Canyon, the largest redwood grove in the world, from the top of Buena Vista Peak. The mountain in the center of the photo is Redwood Mountain, and the Sugar Bowl Trail traverses its ridge and then descends into the canyon to meet Redwood Creek. The Hart Tree Trail travels along the lower region of the canyon east of Redwood Mountain. |
| On June 5th I hiked Redwood Canyon in Kings Canyon NP. It is a pretty incredible place. The canyon contains the largest grove of giant sequoias in the world. I hiked over 12 miles that day, first traveling along the ridge of Redwood Mountain, then dropping down to Redwood Creek, crossed it and continued up the other side of the canyon and eventually returned to the trailhead. It had rained the night before and low clouds were still hanging around creating a foggy, eerie environment. The temperature was 38F when I started and it only warmed up a few degrees. I found the best way to keep warm was to keep moving. |
| Sometimes the clouds would thicken and the forest would become dark and foreboding. The towering redwoods added to the effect. |
| There were huge, ancient trees everywhere. |
| And sometime the sun would try to break through the clouds. Here it lit up a redwood for a few moments (just enough time for me to snap off this photo) and then it passed. The whole day was like that -- the light was constantly in flux and no two moments were the same. |
| I loved the fog and the damp feel the forest had this day. |
| One of my favorite things to look at is the bottom side of a fallen sequoia. The growth pattern is really interesting. It amazes me that these massive trees can anchor themselves in the forest floor and not fall for centuries. |
| The last couple years there have been prescribed burns in Redwood Canyon. It helps rejuvenate the forest and plays an important part in sequoia cones releasing their seeds. In 2009, after returning from a day hike I got caught in one of the prescribed burns while driving home. It was scary seeing flames several feet high burning the debris on the forest floor a mere one lane away from my vehicle (roads make wonderful firebreaks). I thought it was interesting to see the effects of the fire closeup and personal while hiking. |
| The dogwood trees were in bloom. |
| I came across this lovely little beauty near Redwood Creek. These bright red plants really stick out in a forest that is mostly shades of brown and green. Take a moment to really stare at this pretty little thing. The snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) is one of the truly spectacular wild flowers of the Sierra Nevada. It resembles a thick, fleshy, brilliant red asparagus pushing out of the pine needles layer on the forest floor. The snow plant lacks chlorophyll and is nonphotosynthetic and is related to the heaths (blueberries, cranberries, rhododendrons). It has a symbiotic relationship with the fungi that live on the dense litter of dead leaves in damp forests floors. The plant’s roots contain fungi which feed water and nutrients to it. These fungi also extend into the roots of pines and other conifers. Sugars from the conifer roots enter the fungi and then are transferred into the roots of the snow plant. |
| Sequoias have an incredible ability to survive forest fires which produce some very interesting growth patters. |
| Looking down the inside of the Fallen Goliath tree. |
| The outside of the Fallen Goliath tree. This thing was huge -- bigger than a city bus. If you look down on the lower right of this picture you can see a couple pieces of toilet paper. That's just nasty! Please bury your waste or pack it out when you visit the wilderness. It is the respectful thing to do, both for your fellow hikers and for the forest. |
| A deer appears on the trail ahead of me. Notice the size of the tree next to it. |
More interesting burn patterns on a giant redwood.
| The Hart Tree is the largest sequoia in the Redwood Canyon grove. It is also the world's tallest giant sequoia (311 ft). It is really hard to photography these behemoths from the forest floor so I just focused on the trees base which has a huge fire scar. |
A different angle of the base of the Hart Tree.
The trail passes through a fallen redwood.
This is the spectacular bottom side of the tree that the trail passes through.
| Here's a clump of middle aged redwoods. They are all about the same size and probably sprouted at the same time many centuries ago. |
| That's me standing out in one of the few places in Redwood Canyon where I wasn't surrounded by trees. It was nice to see all of those redwoods, but after about 10 or 11 miles of walking in a forest filled canyon it was nice to break out and see a vista. |
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| I don't know the name of this plant but every time I
saw one
it was covered in drops of water. It had rained the night before and
the humidity was high enough that there was very little evaporation.
If you look closely you can see the reflection of the sky and
silhouettes of surrounding trees in each droplet. |