Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Sequoias

After paragliding at Dunlap we spent a relaxing overnight at Sequoia View B&B at Cedar View Winery. We stumbled across this place a few years ago on another road trip and it coincidentally was close to Dunlap. They only have three suites so it's not a big place, but it's nice overlooking the vineyards. The tasting room is only open on the weekends but we were still able to buy a bottle of their wine to enjoy on the terrace.  We looked forward to eating at the nearby Schoolhouse Restaurant again but unfortunately it was closed on the day of the week we were there. (And there's not much else in the way of interesting restaurants in this rural location.)

vineyards

There were lots of birds around like these lark sparrows.

Lark Sparrow

This little bird had a bit of a struggle eating a large dragonfly.

bird caught dragonfly

Although it wasn't really on our route, we decided to take a day and drive through Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I love the big trees.  Although they're quite different trees, redwoods and sequoias often get mixed up. Coastal redwoods grow near the coast, they're the tallest trees in the world. Inland, where we were, there are giant sequoias, which are the largest in volume.

We drove around the loop by Hume lake and got some great views of Kings Canyon.

Kings Canyon

As well as the big scenery, there were also butterflies.

20170919-DSC_0792

butterfly (skipper?)

And reflections in Hume Lake.

reflections

We stopped (as we did on our last visit) to hike in Redwood Canyon (a confusing name, since it contains giant sequoias, not redwoods). It doesn't have the record holding trees like Sherman and Grant, but it still has amazing trees, in a much more natural setting, with a lot less people.

It's always hard to capture the size of these trees.

giant sequoias

giant sequoias

Here's a young tree in front of a giant.

giant sequoias

There have been some controlled fires in this area, leaving many of the trees with charred parts. Their thick bark protects them from smaller fires. And their seeds need the fire to germinate.

There were various butterflies, but they weren't very cooperative for photography!

California sister butterfly

And a few flowers managing to live on the mostly shaded forest floor.

flowers (Indian Paintbrush?)

I don't recall seeing these multicolored round seeds/fruits before. They were about the size of golf balls.

colorful fruit/seeds

We stopped for supper at the Wuksachi Lodge. Before supper we did another short hike to a nearby stream where the evening light was good for reflections.

reflections

We'd planned to camp at the Buckeye Flat Campground where we'd stayed before but it turned out to be full. Luckily there was space at the nearby Potwisha Campground which was also quite nice.

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