Return to Sequoia

I visited Sequoia National Park last week for the first time in three years. I usually go annually but had not been to the park since I retired...bad oversight. The trees are still majestic as always.


I was messing around with my camera on a gray, foggy day trying to photograph the trees, and discovered that the sunset mode gave me a much more accurate image of the reddish color of sequoia bark. Am I the last person to realize this?

This is what's left of the Washington Tree. It used to be one of the six largest sequoias in the park, but an unusually hot fire 3 or 4 years ago burned the area and destroyed most of the tree. However, it's still alive; a few branches are still growing on the left side of it. Blow up the pic and you'll not only get a better view of the branches, but you will notice that someone renamed the tree, at least on the log in the left foreground...possibly a national park employee with a spray paint can? Perhaps they were comparing the remnants of the Washington Tree with the remnants of US environmental policy after the last eight years.





The lizards got into the sequoias so much that they endeavored to climb one of the big trees. They soon discovered it was a really massive undertaking and gave up the idea, content to admire the trees' grandeur from the forest floor.