Saying goodbyes

In two more days we will say goodbye to this beautiful park and to this beautiful area.  Saturday morning we said goodbye to the Hatfields:  Pat, George and Cosmo.

Moose, our 2000 Foretravel (L) and Bigfoot,

the Hatfield's 2003 Foretravel

But before we parted,  Sandy and I along with George Hatfield took one more trip into Yosemite. We got real lucky because the park had just opened the road back into the Mariposa Sequoia Grove.  That saved us a round trip of 4 miles just to reach the grove.  So instead we used our energy to hike 1.6 miles back into the grove for some close ups of these magnificent trees which are among the largest individual living organisms in the world.  My thanks to George Hatfield who took these photos.

 

It was another beautiful spring day; even at 6600 feet of elevation where snow still lingers.  The little cabin to the right of the Sequoia gives you some idea of the size of these magnificent trees.

One attraction we did get to see is this Sequoia that has a walkway cut through the base.  Fortunately, the tree has survived and this type of disfigurement of trees is no longer possible.

One last look at a panorama of the park.

We were lucky and found several of these unusual flowers.  They do not survive through photosynthesis

and have no green coloration.  The ones we saw had not fully bloomed, so I borrowed this one from Google Images.

We leave here Wednesday for a 1757 mile trip to Nacogdoches.  More on that later.

Stay tuned.