Forest Giants

To celebrate my birthday I decided to go hiking to Tuolumne Grove to see the Giant Sequoias. It was 8 miles round-trip on the back road behind Hodgdon Meadows. On the way up I saw Western Tanagers and heard Brown Creeper and Olive-sided Flycatchers. They are amazing, and the largest living things on Earth by mass. I felt privileged just to walk next to them. Think about it; you are next to something that could be 3000 years old. I ate lunch (a whole avocado) and took a nap under the most massive one I could find. While I was there a cone (which are smaller than I thought they would be) fell from the top. From that height it hit the ground with an astonishing force. As I got up into the tourist part of the grove and they had fences to protect the seedlings from being trampled. One fallen snag dies during an especially heavy snowfall was hollow on the inside and was easily big enough to live inside of. No matter how old you are, everyone still has somewhere in their brain the plans for the perfect tree-house. If you've seen the movie My Neighbor Totoro, I did the tree-thanking ritual from the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, you just bow in front of the tree and thank it for taking care of the forest. I felt so lucky to be there; what a way to spend a birthday!

My first Sequoia

Kenton and his future home!