Kaweah Falls

Time magazine: The Most Influential Places in History They are buildings, cities and natural wonders. They house the heights of cultural achievement and offer backdrops for our best ideas. Asked to name the most influential place in history, previous and present TIME 100 honorees reflect on locations that have seen and in some cases helped bring about some of the most transformative moments in human experience. Sequoia National Park Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2112644_2112566_2112643,00.html #ixzz1szYAOV94

Time magazine: The Most Influential Places in History

They are buildings, cities and natural wonders. They house the heights of cultural achievement and offer backdrops for our best ideas. Asked to name the most influential place in history, previous and present TIME 100 honorees reflect on locations that have seen and in some cases helped bring about some of the most transformative moments in human experience.

Sequoia National Park

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2112644_2112566_2112643,00.html #ixzz1szYAOV94

Walt Disney’s Mineral King It was a Friday. It was about week before Christmas. And it was official: The U.S. Forest Service awarded the right to develop the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Forest to Walt Disney Productions. The year was 1965. A wire service article quoted Walt Disney: “When I first saw Mineral King five years ago, I thought it was one of the most beautiful spots I had ever seen and we want to keep it that way.” To Walt Disney, that meant a self-contained “Alpine Village” designed to preserve the natural beauty of valley. Other people wanted “to keep it that way” too. But to them it meant no development at all. <READ ARTICLE>

Walt Disney’s Mineral King

It was a Friday. It was about week before Christmas. And it was official: The U.S. Forest Service awarded the right to develop the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Forest to Walt Disney Productions. The year was 1965.

A wire service article quoted Walt Disney: “When I first saw Mineral King five years ago, I thought it was one of the most beautiful spots I had ever seen and we want to keep it that way.” To Walt Disney, that meant a self-contained “Alpine Village” designed to preserve the natural beauty of valley.

Other people wanted “to keep it that way” too. But to them it meant no development at all.

LA TIMES: Covering the Sierra High Route by ski By Brian E. Clark, Special to the Los Angeles Times December 11, 2011 Reporting from Sequoia National Park— After Barry Ohm met mountain guide Dave Beck, Ohm knew he had to ski across the Sierra. Ohm, a seasoned climber who was living in South Lake Tahoe in 2009 when he took a winter survival class from Beck, was enthralled with Beck’s tales of skiing in the “old days.” Ohm took a series of wilderness ski-camping courses, and in May 2010, he signed on with Alpine Skills International to ski the Sierra High Route, which runs through Sequoia National Park and wilderness areas of the Inyo National Forest. The six-day mountaineering traverse crosses nine mountain passes at elevations from 10,500 feet to 13,000 feet.  <READ MORE>

LA TIMES: Covering the Sierra High Route by ski

By Brian E. Clark, Special to the Los Angeles Times

December 11, 2011

Reporting from Sequoia National Park—

After Barry Ohm met mountain guide Dave Beck, Ohm knew he had to ski across the Sierra.

Ohm, a seasoned climber who was living in South Lake Tahoe in 2009 when he took a winter survival class from Beck, was enthralled with Beck’s tales of skiing in the “old days.”

Ohm took a series of wilderness ski-camping courses, and in May 2010, he signed on with Alpine Skills International to ski the Sierra High Route, which runs through Sequoia National Park and wilderness areas of the Inyo National Forest. The six-day mountaineering traverse crosses nine mountain passes at elevations from 10,500 feet to 13,000 feet.  <READ MORE>

Snow on Sequoia A blanket of early winter snow covered the rocks and skirted the giant redwood trees in Sequoia National Park on Thanksgiving weekend. But despite it being a four-day holiday, few people trudged along the park&#8217;s trails; only the lonely sound of a steady breeze rustling tree branches filled the air; and just a few tourists stopped by the Lodgepole Visitor Center. Maybe it&#8217;s not fair to describe nearby Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks as the sometimes overlooked stepsisters to the more popular Yosemite National Park, located to the north. But year-round, the two parks receive fewer visitors, and have fewer and more subtle attractions. However, to Sequoia and Kings Canyon fans, those are the parks&#8217; strengths, not their weaknesses. A visit to the parks, located in the Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, is a more intimate, personal encounter with nature, compared to a visit to a tourist-packed park. And the intimacy of Sequoia and Kings Canyon is at its best in the winter.  &lt;READ MORE&gt;

Snow on Sequoia

A blanket of early winter snow covered the rocks and skirted the giant redwood trees in Sequoia National Park on Thanksgiving weekend. But despite it being a four-day holiday, few people trudged along the park’s trails; only the lonely sound of a steady breeze rustling tree branches filled the air; and just a few tourists stopped by the Lodgepole Visitor Center.

Maybe it’s not fair to describe nearby Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks as the sometimes overlooked stepsisters to the more popular Yosemite National Park, located to the north. But year-round, the two parks receive fewer visitors, and have fewer and more subtle attractions.

However, to Sequoia and Kings Canyon fans, those are the parks’ strengths, not their weaknesses. A visit to the parks, located in the Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, is a more intimate, personal encounter with nature, compared to a visit to a tourist-packed park.

And the intimacy of Sequoia and Kings Canyon is at its best in the winter.  <READ MORE>

General Sherman Tree Trail, Sequoia National Park Come and see the largest tree (by volume) in the world! The General Sherman Tree is 274.9&#8217; (83.8 meters) tall, and 102.6&#8217; (31.3 meters) in circumference at its base. Other trees in the world are taller or have a greater circumference, but the General Sherman Tree wins by volume of wood, (52,500 cubic feet  or 1486.6 cubic meters). There are many ways to get to the General Sherman Tree. In summer, take a free shuttle to this and other popular destinations in Sequoia National Park. Otherwise, there are two places to park, including a handicapped accessible parking lot.  &lt;READ MORE&gt;

General Sherman Tree Trail, Sequoia National Park

Come and see the largest tree (by volume) in the world! The General Sherman Tree is 274.9’ (83.8 meters) tall, and 102.6’ (31.3 meters) in circumference at its base. Other trees in the world are taller or have a greater circumference, but the General Sherman Tree wins by volume of wood, (52,500 cubic feet  or 1486.6 cubic meters).

There are many ways to get to the General Sherman Tree. In summer, take a free shuttle to this and other popular destinations in Sequoia National Park. Otherwise, there are two places to park, including a handicapped accessible parking lot.  <READ MORE>

Giant sequoias crash to the ground

November 4, 2011

Recently two 1500 year old sequoia trees crashed to the ground in Northern California, and a tourist captured the moment.

Sequoia's Grant Tree: A National Shrine to All Who Have Sacrificed for Their Country

Posted byT.D. Wood on 11/11/2011

An item from the Little-Known Facts of Nature File on this Veterans Day:

Grant Tree

The General Grant Tree of Sequoia National Park, the world’s second largest tree (in terms of mass, not height), was proclaimed by President Dwight Eisenhower as a national shrine to honor the men and women of the United States who have given their lives in service to their country.

President Eisenhower made his proclamation on March 29, 1956. The tree was officially dedicated as a living memorial on Nov. 11, 1956, with Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz presiding. It is the only living thing designated by Congress as a national shrine.

The Grant Tree, estimated to be more than 1,600 years old, also serves as the nation’s Christmas tree, and park rangers place wreath honoring those who have died in service to the country at the base of the tree during an annual holiday ceremony on the second Sunday of each December.

We at REI wish to thank all veterans, including the many REI employees and members, who have served in the armed forces, both past and present. We are grateful for your service.

Kaweah Falls: The Movie

KVIE’s Rob Stewart of “Rob on the Road” explores the Giant Sequoias in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks…”

The Mountains That Made the Man A portfolio by Peter Essick pays tribute to Ansel Adams and the craggy California wilderness named in his honor. By Robert M. Poole Photograph by Peter Essick On his first trip to the Sierra Nevada, in June of 1916, Ansel Adams went armed with a camera—a Kodak No. 1 Brownie—and started shooting. &#8220;I expect to be broke if I keep up the rate I am taking pictures,&#8221; the budding 14-year-old photographer wrote to his Aunt Mary in San Francisco that summer. &#8220;I have taken 30 already.&#8221; He kept shooting for almost seven decades, until his death at age 82 in 1984, by which time he had become a world-famous photographer and a powerful voice for wilderness. Although he traveled far and wide, he returned again and again to the Sierra—&#8221;a noble gesture of the earth,&#8221; in his phrase—for the adventure, artistic inspiration, friendship, and solace he found among its jagged granite peaks, snow-swept passes, and brooding skies. His uncompromising portrayal of these subjects still draws pilgrims to the wilderness that bears his name, deep in the heart of the High Sierra, in hopes of seeing what Ansel Adams saw there.  &lt;Read more&gt;

The Mountains That Made the Man

A portfolio by Peter Essick pays tribute to Ansel Adams and the craggy California wilderness named in his honor.

By Robert M. Poole

Photograph by Peter Essick

On his first trip to the Sierra Nevada, in June of 1916, Ansel Adams went armed with a camera—a Kodak No. 1 Brownie—and started shooting. “I expect to be broke if I keep up the rate I am taking pictures,” the budding 14-year-old photographer wrote to his Aunt Mary in San Francisco that summer. “I have taken 30 already.”

He kept shooting for almost seven decades, until his death at age 82 in 1984, by which time he had become a world-famous photographer and a powerful voice for wilderness. Although he traveled far and wide, he returned again and again to the Sierra—”a noble gesture of the earth,” in his phrase—for the adventure, artistic inspiration, friendship, and solace he found among its jagged granite peaks, snow-swept passes, and brooding skies. His uncompromising portrayal of these subjects still draws pilgrims to the wilderness that bears his name, deep in the heart of the High Sierra, in hopes of seeing what Ansel Adams saw there.  <Read more>

California Waterfall Retreat now a Vacation Rental!

(Source: youtube.com)