June 2010 Vacation Cont'd: Yosemite-Day Two: Big Trees!

Okay, back to our tour of Yosemite!  We had talked about visiting the Sequoia National Forest and/or  Sequoia and King's Canyon National Park on this trip, but that proved to be just a little too far out of the way for us, so we were psyched when we found out that there are sequoias in Yosemite!  Who knew?  Well, probably lots of people, but still.  It was a happy surprise for us!  So, after a nice rest in Mariposa (point C on the map below), it was back into the park and down to Mariposa Grove (point E) (Don't worry about point D--it doesn't correspond to anything.)  Parking was full, so we were looking at having to park and walk a fair distance.  Luckily, a shuttle bus came by just about then, and we were able to jump on.  Yay!

Once we got up to the grove, we did what we never do, and jumped on one of the trolley tours.

This way we knew we would get to see the whole grove, make it back in time to catch the shuttle bus back down to our car, and still have time to check out the park some more.  Although we would have liked more time to meander among the trees, this was still a nice tour.  We did get to stop and walk around at a couple different locations.

We even saw a deer!  I would have gotten a cool shot of him (her?  I can't tell) framed up in the burned out portion of the tree, but when the other people with cameras started running toward him to get a picture, he took off.  Go figure.  See what I mean about people ruining my wilderness?   

Anyway...we saw a deer!  And the Grizzly Giant. 

See that giant limb on the left?  It is 6+ feet in diameter!  I feel so insignificant!  (By the way, this shot of me would have been centered better on the tree, but someone started running after me with a camera and a got spooked and started shuffling off to the side.)

From here we left to head back into the valley to see what else there is to see.  Join me tomorrow for the wrap-up.

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