Sequoia National Park

“ The Tehipite Valley of the Middle Fork and the Kings River Canyon of the South Fork are destined to world celebrity.
The southwestern area of the park is drained by five forks of the beautiful Kaweah River. These streams originate on the north in the divide of the South Fork of the Kings River, and on the east in a conspicuously fine range known as the Great Western Divide. They wind through the wooded valleys of the Sequoia National Park. Upon their banks grow the monsters of the American forest. ”

“ Perhaps more than half of all the big trees have been thoughtlessly sold and are now in the hands of speculators and mill men. It appears, therefore, that far the largest and important section of protected big trees is in the great Sequoia National Park, now easily accessible by rail to Lemon Cove and thence by a good stage road into the giant forest of the Kaweah and thence by rail to other parts of the park; but large as it is it should be made much larger. Its natural eastern boundary is the High Sierra and the northern and southern boundaries are the Kings and Kern Rivers. ”

“ Still, the species is not in danger of extinction. It has been planted and is flourishing over a great part of Europe, and magnificent sections of the aboriginal forests have been reserved as national and State parks,—the Mariposa Sequoia Grove, near Yosemite, managed by the State of California, and the General Grant and Sequoia national parks on the Kings, Kaweah, and Tule rivers, efficiently guarded by a small troop of United States cavalry under the direction of the Secretary of the interior. But there is not a single specimen of the redwood in any national park. ”

“ From September 11 to June 9 "On Call" service by advance reservation is provided from Visalia and Exeter to Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park, and return the same route.
HORSEBACK TRIPS
The park's 700 miles of trails are a challenge to visitors, and horseback riding is a favorite way of enjoying them. Saddle horses are rented by the [Pg 35] Sequoia and General Grant National Parks Co. to experienced riders without guides for use in the areas between the Sherman Tree and Moro Rock at $2.50 a half day and $4 a day. A burro may be had for 25 cents an hour or $1.50 a day. ”

“ The operating company issues a leaflet advising people of accommodations, prices, etc. This can be obtained on application to the superintendent.
It is always advisable when driving in the mountains during the winter to carry tire chains, although even in midwinter it is often possible to drive to the Big Trees without them.
Every effort is made by park authorities to keep the Big Trees accessible during the winter months. Sequoia Park is now well known as one of the few places in California where winter vacationists from other sections of the country may be sure of seeing the giant Sequoias. ”

“ I wish that every one might see in the moonlight the Giant Forest in the Sequoia National Park, or timber-line in the Rocky Mountain National Park. By moonlight the Big Trees will stir you with the greatest elemental eloquence. Those who go up into the sky on mountains in the moonlight will have the greatest raptures and make the highest resolves.
Miss Edna Smith is one of the most appreciative outdoor women I ever have known. Years ago I urged her to know the mountains at night. Here is one of her accounts of a night experience: [Pg 328] ”

“ An excellent bathing pool is available at Hospital Rock Camp, and many visitors stop here for a plunge en route to Giant Forest.
FREE CAMPGROUNDS
The National Park Service maintains campgrounds for visitors traveling in their own automobiles. The largest campgrounds are at Giant Forest, Lodgepole, and Dorst Creek, where water is piped and modern sanitary and garbage-disposal facilities are furnished at about 600 camp sites. Camping is limited to 30 days in any area each year.
Inquiries about free public campgrounds should be addressed to the Superintendent, Sequoia National Park, Calif. ”

“ The new High Sierra Trail has linked the Big Trees of Giant Forest to the Kern Canyon by a graded trail. It is a good 2-day journey from Giant Forest to Kern Canyon.
MOUNTAINEERING
The peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Great Western Divide, as well as the Kaweah Peaks, in Sequoia National Park, offer excellent opportunities for mountaineering. Devotees of this greatest of outdoor sports are visiting the park in increasing numbers. Those interested in mountaineering in the park should communicate with the Sierra Club. ”

“ Its soft graceful beauty in youth, and its leaves, cones, and outsweeping feathery branches constantly remind you of the sugar pine, to which it is closely allied. An admirable tree, growing nobler in form and size the colder and balder the mountains about it.
The giants of the main forest in the favored middle region are the sequoia, sugar pine, yellow pine, libocedrus, Douglas spruce, and the two silver firs. The park sequoias are restricted to two small groves, a few miles apart, on the Tuolumne and Merced divide, about seventeen miles from Yosemite Valley. ”

“ Geological Survey, had a number of mountain-climbing experiences in this Greater Sequoia region. These are tellingly related in that classic volume, "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada." John Muir also wrote of this region, and it seems fitting that this enlarged reservation should be called the "Muir National Park."
Here the skies and the weather are great changing attractions, and the big wild folk are alert neighbors. Here are forests made up of trees each of which is an heroic giant! Here the Ice King left vast and splendid stories. ”

“ Though some areas are covered with growths tall and dense, they are free from gloom, and everywhere one may walk freely through them. They are broken and brightened with numerous sunny openings. This splendid [Pg 77] landscape gardening extends over the greater portion of the Park.
The sequoia, the largest and most imposing tree, is found in the lower reaches of the Park. Other characteristic trees are the sugar pine, king of the pines; the Douglas spruce, king of the spruces; and the hemlock, one of the loveliest trees upon the earth. ”

“ The social life at Giant Forest is one of the great attractions and holds many people beyond the time allotted for the visit. The average population is about 3,000 people.
THE TRAILS
One of the most pleasing features of Giant Forest is the number of forest trails leading from it that afford interesting half-day or all-day excursions. Perhaps nowhere else is it possible to hike so easily for hours through such forests of sequoia, pine, and fir. Many of the trails are oiled to eliminate dust. The trail system is well signed, and the map in this pamphlet is used [Pg 21] by many as a guide. ”

“ The complex, the Court notes, will accommodate 14,000 visitors a day (3,100 overnight; some 800 employees; 10 restaurants; 20 ski lifts) . The State of California has proposed to build a new road from Hammond to Mineral King. That road, to the extent of 9.2 miles, is to traverse Sequoia National Park. It will have only two lanes, with occasional passing areas, but it will be capable, it is said, of accommodating 700-800 vehicles per hour and a peak of 1,200 per hour. ”

“ The park is situated on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and was established to preserve the groves and forests of California Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea) .
It contains not only the largest and perhaps oldest trees in the world, but many other superb scenic attractions.
It is easily reached by train and auto stage or by private automobiles, is open the year round, and accommodations are available at all times. ”

“ For those who desire to make the day trip only, the National Park Service maintains public camps or picnic grounds at Beetle Rock. A ranger is on duty at all times and is anxious to show the park and make the stay of visitors as enjoyable and profitable as possible. ”

“ The National Park Service encourages all forms of outdoor activities, but special attention is paid to fostering a knowledge of the wildlife and natural beauty which the parks were created to preserve. At Giant Forest a small collection of specimens is on display at the naturalist's office during the summer season for the enjoyment of visitors. ”

“ Three Rivers, on the paved highway and a few miles below the park entrance, is the local center for packers and guides to the High Sierra. There are hotel accommodations, stores, and post office located here. ”

“ In addition to the above, marmots, mountain lions, wildcats, mountain beaver, coyotes, foxes, trade rats, and other animals are found in the park. Information about them may be had at ranger stations, the museum, or the superintendent's office.
The birds commonly noticed by visitors near Giant Forest are the blue fronted or stellar jay, western tanager, western robin, chickadee, junco, red-shafted flicker, white-headed woodpecker, several warblers, sparrows, and finches. ”

“ Women should wear riding-breeches, flannel middy blouse, woolen stockings, a small felt hat, and other clothing as recommended for men.
Fishing
There is good fishing in Sequoia Park for rainbow, golden, cutthroat, Eastern brook, and Loch Leven trout. The royal coachman is the fly generally used, but often the brown and gray hackle with peacock body meets with success. Flies and other tackle may be purchased at the Giant Forest. ”

“ The Generals Highway is a fine surfaced mountain road, wide and of easy grade, leading the visitor past Ash Mountain headquarters, Camps Potwisha and Hospital Rock, to Giant Forest, 17 miles from the entrance, and the heart of the present development among the Big Trees. From Giant Forest it continues on past the Sherman Tree to Lodgepole Camp (4 miles) , crosses the Marble Fork, and, winding through mixed fir and pine forests, crossing streams and meadows with many a forest and mountain vista, leaves the park 11 miles farther on at the Lost Grove Ranger Station. ”

“ The Big Tree (Sequoia gigantea) , of course, is the most phenomenal and claims first place, chronologically, in the scientific literature. In the number of workers concerned with it and in the quantity of their writings, the Big Tree also holds a respected place.
Among the early writers who dealt with the Big Tree groves of the present Yosemite National Park were Hutchings, Whitney, Asa Gray, Isaac N. Bromley, J. Otis Williams, Muir, Bunnell, and Clark. ”

“ The park is the starting point for the best of California's High Sierra country, including such famous regions as Kings River Canyon, Kearsarge Pass, Kern River Canyon, and Mount Whitney. For a trip of less than 4 days, saddle horses or packing mules will cost $2 a day; 4 days or more $1.50 a day. The services of guides and packers $5 a day. Cooks cost $6 a day. Pack donkeys, including outfits, $1.50 a day; $7 a week. Outdoor clothing and equipment, such as riding breeches, blankets, dunnage bags, and the like, may be rented at Giant Forest. ”

“ Here are at least 200 high mountain lakes, and over 300 miles of streams containing the famous golden and Kern River rainbow trout. Good mountain trails traverse this area and lead to the outstanding points of interest. ”

“ When the world was young she may have been the first tree to shelter our homeless, wandering race. To-day, when the wild folk of the outdoors are most beset with cold or storm, they go trustingly and confidingly to nestle in the hemlock's arms. And rightly the sequoia is the nobleman of all the forest world. ”

“ The Madrona, clad in thin, smooth, red and yellow bark and big glossy leaves, seems, in the dark coniferous forests of Washington and Vancouver Island, like some lost wanderer from the magnolia groves of the South, while the Sequoia, with all its strangeness, seems more at home than any of its neighbors, holding the best right to the ground as the oldest, strongest inhabitant. One soon becomes acquainted with new species of pine and fir spruce as with friendly people, shaking their outstretched branches like shaking hands, and fondling their beautiful little ones ”

“ As well tell the number of forts that might have been built with the marbles and the energy that were put into statuary and the inspiring arts, as to consider or measure Big Trees in lumber terms.
The sequoia is one of the monumental wonders of this round world. It is the oldest settler—the pioneer of pioneers. Each venerable giant numbers his years by centuries. Each was already old when nations of the present were born. Gone and forgotten are the nations that were—gone the flags that waved in the wind when these trees began to cast their shadows. ”

“ When a great Sequoia falls, its head is smashed into fragments about as small as those made by lightning, which are mostly devoured by the first running, hunting fire that finds them, while the trunk is slowly wasted away by centuries of fire and weather. One of the most interesting fire actions on the trunk is the boring of those great tunnel-like hollows through which horsemen may gallop. All of these famous hollows are burned out of the solid wood, for no Sequoia is ever hollowed by decay. When the tree falls the brash trunk is often broken straight across into sections as if sawed ”

“ Here, as we have seen, no tree in the forest is more enduringly established. Nevertheless it is oftentimes vaguely said that the Sierra climate is drying out, and that this oncoming, constantly increasing drought will of itself surely extinguish King Sequoia, though sections of wood-rings show that there has been no appreciable change of climate during the last forty centuries. Furthermore, that Sequoia can grow and is growing on as dry ground as any of its neighbors or rivals, we have seen proved over and over again. ”