El Capitain

What a pain in the B--- trying to get Internet connection, which I finally did. Had a great day and a beautiful ride. Left Bakersfield this morning at 8 and worked our way into Sequoia National Park. Had some worldly twists and turns on the road both up and down. Pics of the trees do not even do them justice. We spent most of the day in the park and hiked a lot to get different perspectives.

The size of the trees dwarf the building and the landscape around it. This is a tree called the Sentential. You will notice that all of the trees bear a burn scar from mostly naturally occuring fires that are started mainly from lightning strikes. The Park had tried to suppress the fires until they found out that the trees use fire to propagate themselves. Without fire they would not continue to grow and flourish.

Here is a little perspective from a tree that is just a baby and we are standing at the base of it and its sister. The girth of some of these trees exceed 136 feet around. which you can see would be easy to drive a car through had you the drill and saw to make the hole. These trees have a bark depth of over 2 feet thick and heal themselves to most major injuries.

This is General Sherman the biggest tree in the world with a circumference of over 136 feet around, almost as much as me in the foreground.......:-)

Bottom line that this is one big ass tree.

So much fun so much to do, so do not limit yourself to staying the the course and home. The USA has so much to offer and there is so little time to see it all. Make it a priority to see as much and as many of the National Parks and Monuments as you can.

Tomorrow it is on to Yosemite, El Captain and the falls.

Later , HD