Diego Goes to the Sequoia National Forest
April 2001
Approximately four to five hours north of Los Angeles, is the great Sequoia National Forest. I drove up the coast to Morro Bay then turned east and drove across the vast Central Valley to the Sequoias. The mountains stood majestic as I always dreamt they would be. The place is pure magic. In the southern Sierra, within reasonable reach of the Los Angeles megalopolis, you can still find raw, roadless wilderness. While nearby Yosemite is plagued by crowds and overdevelopment, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks remain a largely unspoiled alpine realm, with high-country lakes and mountain streams, snowfields, and scores of peaks that top 13,000 feet. In short, there's enough here to satisfy a John Muir wanna-be through several lifetimes of exploring. As you will see in the pictures below, it is very hard to get an erection when your ass is deep in snow, but then again, it sure was fun trying.
On a clear day, stand on top of Moro Rock in Sequoia's western precincts and take in the view that extends from the 12,000-foot peaks of the Sierra's Great Western Divide to the foothills. The churning Middle Fork of the Kaweah River races below. To the north lies the Giant Forest plateau, where giant sequoias rise above their puny neighbors. The tallest, 275-foot-tall General Sherman, has a trunk that weighs an estimated 1,385 tons and a ground-level circumference of nearly 103 feet. This is our second-oldest national park, dating back to 1890.
