SHORT TRIPS
GETAWAY EXCURSIONS

Sequoia National Park offers alternative to crowded Yosemite

By Paul Franson
CORRESPONDENT

The Wuksachi Lodge at Sequoia National Park offers a new alternative for the wilderness experience.

With crowding and other problems reported from more famous national parks, Californians are discovering the state’s "undiscovered" national parks, Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

The adjoining parks feature spectacular sights — and provide for scenic hikes ranging from short walks suitable for kids to opportunities to climb 14,494-foot Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states.

If you haven’t visited recently, you’ll find that Sequoia, like other national parks, is going back. to nature. Its natural beauty is the real appeal, not man-made amusements, and the park has been reducing encroachment on its giant trees and magnificent vistas.

In the last few years, the National Parks Service has torn down 150 buildings in the Giant Forest. including a lodge and run-down cabins that threatened the sequoias. The area is being reforested with new trees, but now remains off limits during "deconstruction" of old buildings and construction of new trails. Two buildings will remain.

The historic market will become a museum for the giant trees, while the old recreation hall will become an environmental education center.

The old lodge and cottages have disappeared, but a new facility has taken their place only a few miles away. The modern Wuksachl Lodge maintains the spirit of the park while minimizing environmental impact.

Sequoia was the first national park in California, and the second in the nation after Yellowstone. It was created to protect the towering giant sequoia trees that grow nowhere else on earth — and the steep mountains and narrow gorges.

The area was once home to Native peoples, including the Wuksachi. It was first visited by Europeans under Gabriel Moraga in 1806, but the gold rush of 1849 brought a plague of miners and prospectors. They were soon cutting down trees that had been growing for more than 3 millennia even though the wood wasn’t very strong and

often split when the huge trees were toppled.

On one visit, pioneering environmentalist John Muir discovered a sawmill had cut every tree but one in its vicinity. That inspired the crusade that led to establishing Sequoia National Park in 1890.

The big attractions at Sequoia, of course, are its trees, and the most famous of all is the General Sherman tree. It’s the prime attraction in the Giant Forest Grove. The largest living thing on Earth, it’s as tall as a football field is long — 300 feet — and its branches are bigger than many trees.

The giant trees are close to the highway, but the famous Congress Trail winds 2 miles to get away from some of the visitors.

Sequoias are peculiar trees. Rather than soaring giant Christmas trees, sequoias are like huge clubs with relatively sparse foliage. Their redwood cousins found along the coast can be taller, in fact, and some species of trees are larger in diameter that the sequoia’s record 16 feet, but no trees are more massive.

Trees, however, aren’t the only things in the parks. Not far from the Giant Grove lies Moro Rock, a huge granite outcropping high above the valley. You can climb to the top of the rock for a view into the Central Valley. It’s a steep ¼ -mile climb up stairs cut out of the rock — a staircase that would probably never be constructed today, but it’s a boon to visitors.

Beyond the rock is Crescent Meadow, "the Gem of the Sierra" to John Muir. Its one-mile loop trail isn’t challenging, although the air feels thin at the mile-plus height.

Altogether, the park has more than 800 miles of trails, some gentle, some rugged. You can’t see Mount Whitney from the western part of the park except in remote areas, and no roads cross the Sierra nearby.

The crowds aren’t like those at Yosemite, but sometimes the park is busy. A regular shuttle runs between major sites — and lets visitors better enjoy the views.

The park contains at least 200 caves, too. The most famous is Crystal Cave, which is open to visitors. It contains hundreds of icicle-like stalactites and mounds of stalagmites.

In keeping with the de-emphasis on "amusements," the ski area at Wolverton has been converted to a natural winter recreation area for cross-country skiing, snowshoe trails and family play. During the summer, it offers trail rides and picnic grounds.

The prune camping area is Lodgepole, where there’s a museum plus a market with a Laundromat and showers. It also has a snack bar.

The more ambitious can hike and camp in other areas of the park. One possibility is Bearpaw Meadow Camp, a backcountry tent hotel for 12 people an 11-mile hike away.

And, yes, there are bears there, and elsewhere throughout the park. Warnings remind you not to leave food in cars, not to feed bears and how to act if you encounter one. Most visitors are disappointed if they didn’t see a bear, but the bruins deserve respect. They don’t attack people, but if you get In their way, they can be dangerous.

Sequoia is a five-hour drive from the East Bay over highway 180 east of Fresno. The last gas station is at Clingans Junction; there’s none in the park.

There are plenty of views as you rise to more than 7,200 feet, including some into vast Kings Canyon, a dramatic river canyon comparable to Yosemite. Part of this route cuts through Kings Canyon Park and Sequoia National Forest, a multi-use area that allows logging, grazing, mining and other activities as well as viewing nature.

The Wuksachi Lodge at Sequoia National Park offers a new alternative for the wilderness experience.