What is a YOLT? Well, you may have heard the term YOLO. Gary and Sherri think we can live again, not as James Bond, but as being reborn. Consequently, we are having fun in our life, after all, You Only Live Twice.
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| Dear and the Deer |
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| Deer at Grant Grove |
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| Taken in May |
So we went up to the General Grant area of Kings Canyon Nation
Park. This is a paved loop trail or just short of a mile. But in that
mile, it goes through some of the biggest living things in the world,
including the General Grant Tree. There is also a bit of historicity
to the place as it is the site of the Gamlin
Cabin. Even though it was Labor Day weekend, we did not see a
great crowd of people. All in all, it was an enjoyable walk for us.
Relaxing.
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| Gary and Gamlin Cabin |
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| Gary at start of Buena Vista Trail |
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| Gary and Sherri on top of Buena Vista Peak |
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| Mike W and Gary on a big stump |
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| Mike W and Gary on top of a big stump |
Capture California, the Game-2012
By now, gentle reader, you must
be asking yourself, is Thing One and Thing Two done yet? No! A trip
to Grant Grove would feel incomplete without paying homage to the
General. So up we go on the paved path. But first we pass the Oregon
Tree, then the California Tree. The Centennial Stump has always held
my amusement that the people back east would think a tree like the
sequoia would not exist—but of course, if Thing One had only seen
trees the size of our good sized pines, he probably would be the same
way.
Then we reach the high point of
the walk—the Gamlin Cabin. It is the high point, because it is the
highest point of our walk.
Adventure: 008, Hike 108 –
Sunset Trail
Team Thing One, Thing Two leaves
the North Grove Trail, hoping to get to Ella Falls—a nice set of
falls above Lake Sequoia. This trail is more of a jeep road, or
actually an old tourist road, which feels like it will lead us down
to Lake Sequoia. But along the way, we branch off to follow the DeadGiant Loop-see our previous adventure.
Once we get back on the Sunset
trail, we continue down it and it starts to descend rather steeply.
We are looking for the trail off to Ella Falls. We have visited these
Falls, but always from the Lake Sequoia side. We see one path, but it
does not look like it has been used in years. So we continue on. We
get to a dirt road, with a sign pointing down to Lake Sequoia. We
pass by a corral like area, which may be used by the YMCA for
campfires away from the Lake. When we continue on, it looks like we
are heading to the wrong end of Lake Sequoia to find Ella Falls.
After checking our GPS, it confirms our suspicions.
Capture California, the Game-2012
This loop starts from the SunsetTrail. Thing One, Thing Two take the northern side first. It skirts
along a very nice meadow. We shortly pass by a very large sequoia,
laying in the meadow. But this is not the Dead Giant. Further along,
we come to the Dead Giant. The girth is monstrous, but through the
years, fire and lightening took its toll on the top. Compared to
other sequoias, the Dead Giant looks a bit stubby. But you can tell
that in its day, this was the king of the forest. It is so large and
the forest is so crowded, we cannot get a good perspective for a
picture.
The loop continues around this
short ridge till we can get a good look at Lake Sequoia. Lake Sequoia
is a YMCA camp. Our three kids spent a lot of time here, along with
Thing One, while they were all in YMCA Indian Guides. The sight
always brings back fond memories. A couple was also at the overlook
and was interested in Ella Falls—where we would like to go. But
they are concerned with the descent and coming back up. The SunsetTrail is a short distance from this point and we reach it pretty
quickly.
Capture California, the Game-2012
Team Thing One, Thing Two start
from the Grant Grove parking lot and go westward, descending, along
the south part of this loop. Lots of sequoia trees which forms an
overhead canopy. But we are not on this trail very long before we
turn off onto the Sunset Trail and walk that trail for a couple of
hours.
But then we rejoin the North
Grove Loop and down we go again. When Thing One says down, he does
mean down. For as much as team Thing One. Thing Two has traveled this
trail, both on foot and on ski's, it always seems steep down and
steep up again. About half way around, we meet another couple who
must have had the same thoughts. They were wondering if they were on
the right trail. Strangers from New York, but they were enjoying
themselves and felt assured they were doing good.
Adventure: 67
But then, this gets topped when Thing Two is walking down the
Yosemite-Tuolumne Trail, above Sunrise Creek. She speaks to a young
deer and the deer proceeds to follow her for about a quarter mile.
We
take off and read the end of the Park Ridge Trail—when we come to
the Park Ridge Lookout. When Steven and I have hiked this trail
before, the lookout had been unmanned. But now, there are two
volunteers up there. We find out that it is their first day there.
This lookout and the Delilah lookout are staffed with volunteers from
the Buck Rock
Foundation. We spend an enjoyable time talking with the ladies.
We then return to the car via the same route we came on, arriving
back at the car at 4:10pm. An alternative route would have been to
return via the access road. The complete trip report can be found on Gary's Summer Blog.
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| On the trail up |
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| Panorama Point |
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| Kersarge Pinnacles |
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| North Palisades |
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| Profile of Hike |
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| GPS Tracks of Hike |
