Our last day in Yosemite started out with a visit to the Mariposa Grove - one of three stands of ancient Giant Sequoias in the park. Near the southern entrance, the grove was only about 20 minutes away from where we stayed. Matt and I were excited to see the trees but thought - "We see big trees all the time in the PNW! Sequoias can't be that much bigger, right?" Well...they were much bigger. Huge! And so old - up to 3,000 years. They almost didn't look real. It felt very otherworldly to walk amongst them, like we were in some other time or place.
We ended up doing quite a hike, with around 1,000 feet in elevation gain - more than the most we've ever done in the gorge! The hike started off amongst big crowds of people, taking pictures by the famous trees. After we passed through the tree above (inside a tree!) and made our way to the museum at the top of a ridge, the crowds really thinned out. We passed through trees that were blackened from forest fires - we learned that Giant Sequoias not only survive forest fires, but need them to reproduce. Their bark resists flames and the heat opens up their seed pods and clears the forest floor for Sequoia seedlings to grow.
The trees at the top of the ridge were just as big as those by the entrance, but without all the crowds. In the museum, we learned that while these trees live up to 3,000 years old, they don't die because of disease or old age, but because of wind. They have shallow root systems and eventually just fall over. We felt really lucky to see these amazing trees, that don't live anywhere else in the world!
After our Sequoia adventure, we had a quick lunch and headed back down to Yosemite Valley for an open air tram tour of all the sights. It was informative and interesting, and we saw parts of the park we hadn't seen before, including one of the spots Ansel Adams photographed from (first one below - how does mine live up?).
When our tour was over, it was sunset and time for one last thing to do in Yosemite - go star gazing! Led by a park ranger, we paid $5 each to lie in a big field with a group of people and learn about the stars. It was pretty incredible. We were lucky to have a new moon during our visit, so the stars were all super visible. The ranger pointed out constellations to us using a laser pointer and we learned about the history of constellations and basic facts about the solar system and galaxy beyond. We could even see the milky way because the skies are so free of light pollution! To cap off the night, we saw three shooting stars - at first, they looked fake, they were so perfectly visible. It was a really special experience that I know I'll remember forever.
The next day, we drove back to Tahoe for one last night of vacation and headed home the following morning. It was a great vacation, with beautiful sights and fun experiences with family - and we're so glad we got to really see Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. A+ !
Now, back to work!
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