We head to the first, Tuolomne Grove, and get there earlier than we thought we might at around 8am. There are four other cars parked in the car park and on the one mile walk downhill we pass one large group and another couple on their way back up and figure that we will practically be on our own when we get to the grove. It’s a nice walk through this quiet, forested area and a gentle slope the whole way. We keep looking around at the trees and they are large and grandiose. “Is that a giant sequoia?” we keep asking ourselves as the trees seem to get bigger and bigger, but they never are. That is until the path widens into a large flat area and we start to look around and suddenly start to spy them.
There is a smaller path here that takes us on a tour of the grove and suddenly what seemed large and grandiose a few minutes ago is looking puny next to these amazing trees. They are just huge! One has fallen (naturally in a storm a few decades ago) and the root system gives us an idea of what is required to keep these guys upright.
It’s great fun following this path and trying to see the next sequoia before it is sign-posted. You look through gaps in the trees and you know you’ve found one when you can’t see any light through the gaps! The path is contained by a small fence which means we can’t get up close to any of the live trees, something we really want to do as we hear that their bark is almost spongy to the touch. This barrier is to protect the tree roots from being trampled as they have a very shallow root system to get their water and support their massive trunk. The other thing we learn here about the environment that sequoias thrive in is that they like to be near water. In this case it is a very small stream that runs through the grove. Unfortunately this stream is not only giving life to the trees but also to a million mosquitoes. These evil creatures feast on us in our shorts and t-shirts and looking down our arms and legs are soon covered in the buggers! We have no repellent, so rely on waving arms about and swatting them. The only upside of their existence is that these guys seem to have very slow reactions and so are very easy to swat once they have settled on your arm. In between taking pictures and exploring the grove we pause every few steps to smack ourselves on the arms and legs. We may have killed all that bit us, but they did still manage to bite us - and we pay for it over the next few days!
Before leaving the grove, we stop off at a sequoia that the road runs through - back in the late 19th Century they discovered this dead tree and decided to route the road straight through it!
Our next stop is the even quieter Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias. This is the least visited of giant sequoia groves in Yosemite because at nearly two miles from the trail head it is the most remote site. We’re pleased to see only another three cars in the car park again as part of our reason for visiting these groves, rather than the main one furthest away, was that they would be less full of tourists. Here the path is flat for the first mile and then very steep for the last section, again bringing us down into the river valley through sun splattered forest.
We’re the only people here and this time the path isn’t fenced and so we get to feel the bark which is strangely slightly spongy as we’d been told. We also find proof of the other theory of giant sequoia growth; that they tend to grow in straight lines. It’s believed that this is because the seeds need heat to germinate and many gain this heat from under a smouldering tree trunk that has fallen, and hence is in a straight line. With continue further on the path passed the initial grove and we really feel like explorers as we are on our own and spy at least twenty other trees as we walk.
We bookend our time in Yosemite with a visit to PJ’s in Groveland for lunch, conveniently forgetting that we have already made sandwiches! The drive back is as beautiful as the way here, but we obviously haven’t had quite enough caffeine to counteract all the walking we’ve done over the last few days and we’re feeling the effects and so decide to stop for a coffee in the historic downtown of Jacksonville about an hour from Folsom. From just wanting a coffee, this turns out to be an interesting stop and one that really makes us think about what it is like in small American towns. The downtown is definitely “historic” and the buildings are lovely painted wooden structures with flags adorning most of the street. The main street itself too is quiet, as the freeway we have been driving on by-passes the town, rather than driving right through it. We both remark that it is just like the movie Cars, because where the by-pass has been built to avoid damage to the town by the busy road, it has actually had a negative effect on the town as its potential patrons whizz straight past it. It is a sad state of affairs in Jacksonville as most of the main street is taken up by antique shops or “closed/ing down” stores. After trekking the full length we find a lone coffee shop that does the job for us, but we leave the town wondering how business and character can survive in a place like this.
As we are on the road earlier than we had thought and as we drive into Folsom we decide to try and find Folsom Brewmeister, a homebrew shop that we want to visit to hopefully buy a kit or two. Scott has been looking online at the company’s new location as they moved from downtown Folsom to a trading estate in the last six months. We have Scott’s recollections and only a basic map of the main streets in Folsom, so we spend about half an hour driving up and down streets that ring a bell and trying to avoid one-way systems until we find the place. Unfortunately they don’t sell kits and our home-brewing skills aren’t up to whole grain brewing just yet so we don’t buy anything. We do have a nice chat with the guy there, though, who gives us some useful tips on cooling the wort for whole grain brewing when brewing in the heat of the summer.
Back at Lesley’s we take a dip in the pool and have dinner outside as the warm afternoon turns to a lovely cool evening.
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