Camping in Sequoia National Forest

Photo Album

Mention camping to me and it insights images of vast, lush forests far from civilization, wilderness and wild life abound. It excites memories of roaring campfires, pocket knives, exploration and the spirit of adventure. It surrenders my ears to the sounds of leaves crunching and twigs crackling beneath my feet, of the wind speaking to the trees, the roar of rivers or the trickling of streams as they make their way to some undiscovered lake out of sight and to Blue Jays sounding out warnings to the wild tenants of the forest of my approach. Ethereal smells of damp foliage, evergreens and ferns, musty old tents and smoke tainted sleeping bags immediately fill my nose. As a child, the great, magnificent forest welcomed me in laying down before me its soft blanket of golden leaves and it stretched out its trees, branches, hills and creatures for my delight. Though I knew that many had come before me I always felt as if I alone were the only person to have ever stood in its presence. I hope that such treasures saturate the senses of my children, becoming unshakably rooted in their memories and compelling them to one day share these same riches with their children.



The kids and I went camping in Big Sur last year along the coast. This year our destination was Lodgepole Campground in The Sequoia National Forest. Both the location and the experience were truly incredible. The plan was to leave no later than noon on Monday but by the time we got everything loaded, stopped at the bank and grabbed lunch at McDonald's we ended up getting on the freeway at 2:30 pm. Six hours later we arrive at our campsite to find that there is nowhere to set up our tent. We couldn't find a spot large enough between rocks to fit the tent. I flag down a Park Ranger who helped us find a new site. The temperature was quickly dropping off now that the sun had set. It was supposed to drop down to 35 degrees. We set up camp, made dinner and as we were settling into the tent for the night I painfully realized that I had no air mattress. Panic begins to set in- how could I have forgotten something as important as an air mattress! OK, I calm down a little and convince myself that it cant possibly be that bad. I can rough it out for a week right? Uh... yeah! I snuggle in between Tiya and Mckenna and fall asleep- for about oh... I don't know, 10 minutes. The arch of my back hurts because I am now 40 and have more bone and less cartilage than when I was 10. I roll over onto my side and fall back to sleep- I think. I'm not quite sure really because before too long my hip hurts and I flip over to lay on the opposite hip. Needless to say, this exchange of one sore spot for another continued all night long. I'm not sure whether the morning sun brought with it damnation or absolution.




Tuesday morning was very cold- I hadn't bought firewood yet- but we managed to get up, get dressed and eat so that we could start exploring. At 1:00 pm we went on a nature hike, led by a Park Ranger, through the Giant Sequoias. It promised to be a one mile/ two hour hike teaching us a lot about the Giant Sequoias. Roughly 20 minutes into the hike Mckenna tells me that she has to go pee and by the look in her eyes it was urgent so I do the first thing that comes to mind as a Father- I try to get her to go pee behind a tree. This was just not going to do for Mckenna who is now pleading because she has to go so bad. I tell Tiya, Devyn and Steven to continue on with the hike and I would take Mckenna back so she can goto the bathroom. Mckenna and I begin to walk back and as the look in her eyes becomes more urgent we walk faster- as she begins to cry we start running. So here we are running down this path in the middle of the Giant Sequoias with Mckenna practically pulling me off my feet running to her salvation. I look down at her and tell her that if she goes pee in the woods I will too. She looks up at me with her watery, bloodshot eyes and half crying says, "Daddy, I don't have a weiner." She's frantic at this point because she is at the brink of wetting her pants and I look over to the side of the trail to see a black bear tearing a fallen tree apart. I quickly stop and whisper to Mckenna to look at this bear who is about 15- 20 feet off the trail. Mckenna in her typically loud six year old voice says, "Bear? Where!" Another brown bear that I didn't even see is startled by Mckenna and looks up at us as it takes a couple of steps back. The black bear turns and hides his head and front quarters behind a tree. At this point all possible directions of retreat while carrying a six year old with a near rupturing bladder are rushing through my mind. I'm staring at the bear, the bear is staring at me like an old western standoff and Mckenna still has to pee. To be honest if it had been me that had to go pee I think that is where I would have lost it. I slowly begin to walk away from the bears as they continue staring at us. Mckenna starts crying again that she has to go pee so without thinking I start running again to get her to the bathroom. I suddenly remember that running from an animal can sometimes result in the animal chasing and eating you so I quickly exchange running with a brisk walk. Once out of sight of the bears we continue our race to relief. We Made it and I can assure you we were both relieved! Once Mckenna's face got it's normal color back she wanted to go get a drink- something about that seems a little ironic to me! We decide to go back down the trail to see if we can spy on the bears some more but they had moved on. I was hoping that we would be lucky enough to see bears on this camping trip but I never thought that we would see them so close up. We ended up running into Tiya, Devyn and Steven who had decided to leave the group and come back. I was bummed that they didn't get to see the bears and to top it off Tiya had been carrying my camera.

When we got back to camp we stopped at the small store at the entrance to get some supplies. I noticed that they had a section for camping equipment and to my great surprise they had air mattresses! Salvation! Yes, of course I bought one! I didn't even flinch at the price. We picked up some ice and firewood and went back to camp. We grilled salmon on the fire, cooked mash-potatoes on the stove, poured olive oil around our plates and added capers and cilantro. We ate well and we ate a lot that night. After dinner we went back to the store area and took showers.


Driving back to our campsite we stopped to watch a deer grazing in the campground for a little bit. We had a nice campfire with S'mores and all. Mckenna ended up falling asleep on my lap in front of the fire while Tiya, Devyn and Steven went to hang out with some kids that they met down at the showers.


Wednesday morning started with a fire, beacon and eggs, hot chocolate and tea- much warmer than the morning before. A deer passed through the campground near our space so Mckenna and I followed it for a while. Mckenna did her best to be sneaky which wasn't too bad for a 6 year old. Every time the deer would look back at her she would give her best statue imitation.


The deer walked around a giant rock and I climbed over the rock to take its picture. It looked a little surprised to see me coming over the top. We met up with the family we met at the showers and store Tuesday evening and caravanned to Moro Rock. On our way to Moro Rock I spotted a bear on the side of the road tearing apart a log so I stopped and jumped out of the car to take pictures. The bear saw me and started walking away before I could get my camera ready to shoot. I chased after it for a moment but soon lost it. Now all of the kids got to see a bear- I was satisfied.




Moro Rock was pretty impressive. You could see the Great Western Divide all covered in snow from the top. The drop from the top of the rock to the valley floor is the same depth as the Grand Canyon. After Moro Rock we drove through the tunnel tree on the way to the General Sherman Tree.


The General Sherman Tree or as we like to call it the "Shermanater" is the largest tree in the world. Its largest branches are 6' in diameter. Later back at camp we had dinner and drinks around a big bon-fire with our new friends from campsite 169- the Kimmel family.


On Thursday we hiked a short trail that started in our campground and climbed 1.7 miles to the Tokopah Falls. It was a beautiful hike through the trees and along the river.








The hills around the trail still had some snow which accounted for the streams and wet areas we had to cross along the trail. We were hoping to see more bears but didn't. Instead we saw a lot of these funny creatures that looked like obese squirrels with smaller tails. We later discovered that they were Marmots which are actually in the squirrel family.



At 5:30 we decided to goto Crescent Meadow to hike because we had heard from other campers that they had spotted bears in the area on several occasions. When we pulled into the parking area of Crescent Meadow there was a Buck and a Doe slowly making their way through. The Buck got spooked and ran off as more people gathered but the Doe stayed to see if it could get some hand outs.



Devyn and Mckenna held out empty hands trying to entice the Doe. To our surprise the Doe came right up to them and actually put its mouth around Mckenna's fingers. The trail we took led us around the marshy meadow as ducks flew in and mosquitos looked for soft tissue. I had given up hope of seeing any bears because the kids were being so loud. As we were on the other side of the meadow making our way back I looked off the trail to see a blonde colored bear walking in front of a Giant Sequoia. The kids were a good 50 yards ahead and couldn't hear me trying to get their attention so I snuck off the trail trying to quietly stalk the bear.


About 20 feet off the trail in the direction of the bear I noticed a buck laying down beneath a sequoia watching me. It let me get as close as it dare before running off.


I walked around the large sequoia and spotted the bear again as it walked up a fallen tree tearing the bark off and looking for bugs. By this time the kids had come back to find me and sat there quietly with me watching this incredible animal go about its evening routine.




Leaving Crescent Meadow we noticed people pulled off to the side of the road with their cameras and as we approached we discovered two bears foraging in a clearing not too far off.


Friday was our free day. We all slept in a little and ate breakfast late. It was going to be a lazy restful day. We had been so busy all week that I thought it would be a good idea to let the kids do what they wanted. Tiya, Devyn and Steven hung-out with the kids from the other family we met, we played cards, rode bikes and went on a short little hike around the campsite. Mckenna and I scarred up another deer in the trees as we walked around. It was our last day in Sequoia and though I could tell everyone was a little bummed that we were leaving the next day I think we were all ready to go home.






We got up Saturday, made breakfast and packed up the car. As we were packing Mckenna was asking me how to spell "because" as she was writing on a piece of paper. Soon afterwards she brings me a piece of paper that she had written, "I love my Dad because I love you love Mckenna with little hearts drawn down the rest of the paper and ending with you." I think Mckenna was saying thank you daddy. We left our campsite around noon and headed down the mountain. The lower we descended the hotter it got. We had become so spoiled with the comfortable daily temperatures in the Sequoias that the scorching 99 degrees of the valley floor was hard to take. Fortunately the ride home didn't take too long. When we got home the kids helped me unpack and put everything away. I told them that we would try to go camping again at the end of summer and they all agreed that would be nice.


As I dropped the kids off at their mother's Devyn says to me, "Dad, I bought you and Mom a souvenir." My heart dropped. "Devyn," I said nearly speechless, "You should have got yourself a souvenir buddy. You didn't need to buy me one." He smiled at me with his typically big smile and says, "I got memories Dad. I remember things." With that he hands me a wooden ink pen that says Sequoia National Park on one side and Shawn on the other. What a precious gift.