Tree Huggers get in here.....

[Road Guy]

So we stopped by sequoia NP yesterday.....

You can see the "normal" size trees for scale!

I didn't take a picture of the "Sherman" tree. Aka Yankee carpet bagger that burned down the south land.....

 

[Road Guy]

Even the dead ones look cool....

 

[matt267 PE]

Mike likes the dead tree? WTF?

 

[YMZ PE]

Mike likes the dead tree? WTF?

Instead of a tree hugger, he's a tree necrophiliac? :dunno:

 

[Master slacker]

I love trees in briquette form.

 

[csb]

I look forward to posting my own giant wood pictures in here.

 

[NJmike PE]

Matt just like seeing giant wood

 

[Road Guy]

That would have been a better thread name.....

 

[matt267 PE]

I named my big wood The King.

 

[envirotex]

So we stopped by sequoia NP yesterday.....

So cool...Did you see any wild life? We were on the trail late in the day, and all of the sudden these other people we were near told us to stop...We were about 20 feet away from a big black bear that was on the path. It's the only time where that phase about about being "faster than you" and bears was perfectly clear to me.

 

[Ble_PE]

I thought our resident tree huggers would appreciate this.

 

[Road Guy]

we didnt see any noteworthy wildlife- wish we would have...

We parked at the North lot near Big Sherman and did the 4 mile hike to Morrow Rock, since most people don’t do the hike we didn’t see that many people. We were amazed how crowded the place was once we got off the “dirt trails”, borderline annoying. The crowd that take the shuttle to everything , get out snap some photos and then huddle up and wait for the next bus (was way worse at Grand Canyon though)..

But the 4 mile (or so) hike through the big tree forest was really cool..

 

[engineergurl]

I had a few fun bumper stickers on my car in college to tick the hippies off... but my fav was the "hug a logger and you'll never go back to trees"

 

[mudpuppy]

We parked at the North lot near Big Sherman and did the 4 mile hike to Morrow Rock, since most people don’t do the hike we didn’t see that many people. We were amazed how crowded the place was once we got off the “dirt trails”, borderline annoying. The crowd that take the shuttle to everything , get out snap some photos and then huddle up and wait for the next bus (was way worse at Grand Canyon though)..

Pretty much the same experience at Yellowstone as well. The areas near the parking lots are overrun with people, but as soon as you get 100 yards from a road there is hardly anyone.

The only national park I've been to where the trail was overrun with people was Rocky Mountain.

 

[cement]

skiings like that too. hike a hundred feet and you have the place to yourself.

 

[Road Guy]

i think you have to hike a little more than a hundred feet

but serious question (& I dont mean to offend) but why do so many out of towners (like from across the pond) come to America to visit the National Parks?

Or if I go visit the great wall of china will there be a few hundred annoying as hell Americans there taking pictures and running about the place like the own it?

 

[roadwreck]

but serious question (& I dont mean to offend) but why do so many out of towners (like from across the pond) come to America to visit the National Parks?

What else is there to see here? :huh:

Seriously though, in a lot of countries, especially very crowded/developed nations, there aren't always a lot of place where nature is so well preserved. The USA did a pretty decent job with that.

Or if I go visit the great wall of china will there be a few hundred annoying as hell Americans there taking pictures and running about the place like the own it?

Yes.

I think there is a reason this term came into being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American_(pejorative)

 

[Road Guy]

[SIZE=medium]Sometimes it does amaze me that someone 80+ years ago had the foresight to say, you know one day this Grand Canyon will look like New York City if we don’t make this a Federal Park and preserve it. I am Glad they did….[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I don’t have much desire to travel to other countries personally (maybe I will later) so I don’t know what possess people to come here and visit to be honest.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium] But I wouldn’t travel a few thousand miles to see big trees..however I am sure they do other stuff..[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]It was funny when we were at GC we were talking to (what looked like a very granola- politically correct park ranger) & we asked what time we needed to be at the park to see the sunrise and he said “unless you want to be seeing it with the hundreds of Japanese tourist that come via bus from Vegas every morning don’t waste your time”[/SIZE]

 

[mudpuppy]

The trail I mentioned that was over-run with people at Rocky Mountain? Japanese tourists--all with their cameras and shouting to each other and carrying on.

It really depends on when you go--at Grand Canyon we watched the sunset from Yaki point and there were only a handful of people there.... but that was in March and there was snow on the rim. Whereas my experience at Rocky Mountain was the first weekend of June.

 

[Road Guy]

Come to Rocky Mtn NP in January, rent snow shoes at REI for 10 bucks and you won't see any tourists and only a few people...