how to get an entire sequoia into 1 frame...

 

If at first, you don't succeed,

tilt, tilt again.

An imperfect framing job, but it's not the 1st time

I pulled the old tilt-camera move to get

an entire giant sequoia into a frame, esp. w/o traipsing off trail.

This is the Clothespin tree in the Mariposa Grove,

at Yosemite National Park.

The Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley were among the 1st 2 pieces of the park set aside for preservation, and pretty much the 1st move to preserve land for what would eventually become the NPS.

This is THE MAN!

Galen Clark, posing in front of the spectacular Grizzly Giant.

Photo circa 1858-1859, by Carleton Watkins.

The Mariposa Grove inspired Galen Clark to traipse around to defend it from logging-crazed men, and he eventually helped get this land protected. How's THAT for a solid accomplishment during one's lifetime? Wow.

IF you don't know anything about Galen Clark,

I heartily encourage you to learn. Pretty amazing story. 

Blurb from Wiki:
"In 1853 at the age of 39, Clark contracted a severe lung infection that was diagnosed as consumption (as tuberculosis was called in his time). Doctors gave him six months to live, as they had no antibiotic treatment at the time, but counseled rest and outdoor air.

"Clark moved to the Wawona, California area as a homesteader. 'I went to the mountains to take my chances of dying or growing better, which I thought were about even.' (Galen Clark, 1856) Upon his discovery of the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Galen Clark spent most of his time exploring the area and teaching others about the mysteries of the giant, cinnamon-colored trees."

He guarded Yosemite for the next 24 years.

Apparently, Yosemite cured him.

AND he planted sequoias around where he planned to be buried. When I worked at Yosemite, I was at a meeting where my boss told this story, and he got choked up, I got choked up, etc. You can visit Galen Clark's grave in the old Yosemite Cemetery. And it's ringed by giant sequoias.

Photo by Justin Johnsen

A little thing called the Clark Range, in Yosemite, is named after him, among other things.

The tree I personally find most sort of magical (pardon TOTALLY NON-SCIENTIFIC-OSITY) is the Grizzly Giant. Staring at it makes elves in an enchanted forest seem totally believable. =)

So, these are some important trees, on many levels,

the Sequoiadendron giganteum.

And you've gotta love a park signed into law

by Abraham Lincoln. TOO COOL! =)

We hiked to the museum up the trail, and for some reason, I noticed things there I'd not noticed before (like the metal strip set into the floor that's the radius of a huge sequoia), and now can tell the difference between a cedar and a sequoia by their cute little scale-y "leaves."

Traveling, soon, so may be quiet for a week or so.

Tho' am bringing camera, so at some point

should have goodies to post.

Have a great week!

xoxobb

Mumday interpreted: smoky SEKI!

  

This is one of the first places we stopped to gaze across the landscape and into the soup that was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks last weekend. The Sheep fire has been burning there for weeks and putting up a respectable amount of smoke.

Check this link out to see the fire via satellite. It's the puff of smoke east of Monterey Bay and south of Mono Lake. There's just about no other fires visible, so you can't miss it.

MODIS, by the way, is an AMAzing source of daily views of the planet. Truly stunning images, and free. I highly recommend bookmarking that pup.

Bear loves fire, and I suspect this is what prompted this, our FIRST trip here. Little did I know it's spec-TAC-ular. Wow. A lot of the views normally available were completely obscured, but we will definitely be back: now that I viscerally "get" the "Kings Canyon" title. Very apt.

This is about where we first saw the actual sources of the smoke, and loved what it did to the sun--some freaky lighting that day, all glowing orange and diffuse. I happened to be wearing orange pants that day, and they looked like they were plugged into an electric socket--too cool.

Here you can actually see places on fire--didn't usually see flame, but saw the smoke climbing up out of the trees.

If you didn't know, going to see a fire at night is the best time to see actual flame--looks totally different. This I learned when we had a fire about 3 miles from our house.

The base of this tree was on fire. Bear noted it was probably frustrated, 'cause this tree's toes are IN the river (see extreme foreground of picture), and it's surrounded by rock, but nevertheless, it still caught on fire

Ah, well. It'll be a lovely snag for some very happy bugs and birds (and mammals, etc.), once its temperature lowers to something hospitable. Snags (dead trees) really do seem to bring out biological joy; so many species benefit by them, it's a biological party that continues for years.

I figured I'd end the post with some huge sequoias that had obviously been burned in the past. Fire scars can be seen pretty commonly on these behemoths.

If you've not heard the story re: sequoias and fire, years ago parks with sequoias suppressed fire around the trees to keep them from burning up. Wouldn't want a Sequoia National Park where all the sequoias were just huge piles of ash, would you?

Well, then someone (super smart) looked around the sequoia forest floor and noticed something. No baby sequoias. NONE. That is not good.

Turns out sequoias MUST have fire to regenerate--to get new sequoia trees. So, everyone revisited their fire management plans and now they do allow fires to occur in the groves. They may be carefully managed fires, but fire has returned to these groves to do what it needs to do.

It's amazing how many times we tinker with nature and later figure out that it really wasn't such a good idea, and, in fact, is hurting the very thing we were trying to protect.

Lesson? Unless you have a mountain of evidence, when in doubt, ask yourself what had happened there for millenia before we ever arrived. That's probably a very good place to start.

biobabbler

P.S. SEKI is the NPS 4 letter code for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. If you want to learn more about these parks, go to www.nps.gov/seki. =)

Mumday, Mumday...

   

   

   

   

   

biobabbler