Our 100 Day Trek through the US of A, part 7, Yosemite
There is no competition that can rival Yosemite. There just isn't. A Valley carved over millions of years into hard granite stone is just by that fact alone an unbelievable feat.
Yosemite means in the Indian Miwok language, the tribes that lived around this valley, "those who kill". The Miwok feared the Ahwahnee tribe living in the valley, as they were composed of renegade Paiute Indians that often raided the Miwok.
The American troops came here in 1851 to remove the Ahwahneecee since white settlers and conservationist battled over the valley.
A granite valley resulting from the formation of the Sierra plateau and glacier periods of erosion as well as river erosion. The granite had been formed 6 miles below the earth 210 to 80 million years ago (you see that geologists cover their guesstimates with big spreads in time.)
The period of landslides and rock caving supposedly ended 10,000 BC. Although January 22, 2012 at 10 pm rocks the quantity of 600,000 washing machines, some car and truck size rocks amidst them, fell into the Valley closing the Valley road for weeks. The following days it rained on and off lots of toasters and microwaves onto the Valley floor. Hence the motto of the National Park Service wherever you visit national parks or monuments: "Safety is your responsibility"! As if anybody could safeguard themselves from events of this nature. We took two tours in this park, from which I gleamed the facts above.
The tour to the top of the valley to Glacier Point gave us revealing stories about the vegetation living here in the valley. There are almost no tap root trees here because of the granite, with exception of the lush valley floor vegetation. Soil on the granite surface formed here thru erosion and controlled burns is in average 6 inches deep and thus most of the forest is compiled of trees that spread their roots for sustenance and balance. The sequoia trees are an example of that, but more about those a bit later. Looking 6,000 ft down to the Valley floor is not for the vertigo plagued among us.
Looking up at El Capitan (the largest monolith in the world) or Half Dome, dwarfs everybody and anything around you. The Yosemite falls the tallest in North America (2425 ft) are a sight to behold.But again the pictures will have to do the talking.
This is where shepherd John Muir's fame was established coming to this Valley as an unemployed 31 year old Scotsman looking for work. Hired by James Hutchings to run his sawmill, the only entrepreneur in the Valley promoting his hotel, basically squatting on the park grounds as he refused to pay his $1/year government lease, claiming he was there before the government created this park as signed into law by Lincoln in 1864.
Short story told: Hutchings was evicted, and Muir went on to co-found the Sierra Club and was the catalyst in the creation of various national parks: Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier and Grand Canyon National Parks.
An hour up the road we found the Mariposa Grove with Sequoia trees that tower way above us. Of course the largest of them all is in the Sequoia National Park, a tree named General Sherman, whose following statistics are daunting: 2100 years old, 275 ft tall, weighing (by estimation since they could not uproot him and place him on the scale) 2.7 million pounds with a circumference of 100 ft.
Now we had a few biggies too:
the "California Tunnel Tree", with a tunnel for T fords cut out of its center for touristic reasons (another "tunnel tree" died as the wind took him down).
We saw named trees such as the "bachelor and three graces", the "clothespin tree", the "grizzly giant" and the "faithful couple". The last one having a intertwined base and root system.
An over watered "newbie" tree had died and showed its smooth inner wood while the living bark crumbles away from it in death.
It is amazing to hear how these trees fight off intruders to their shallow root system that spreads out beneath them sideways to uphold them in their height. Often less than 6 feet down the spread out as wide as 150 feet to keep their balance. Their tannic skin and root system repulses fungi and bacteria and the predominantly acid bearing trees which intrude on their need for sunshine.
The crown of a mature sequoia tree bears thousands of egg shaped cones, each one of which contains 200 seeds.
The female cones grow on the upper branches of the tree. Annual flowering on the lower branches releases pollen and depends on strong winds to have the pollen reach the upper branches where the open cones are waiting.
After pollination the cones have to fall in sunlit open spots to release seeds to the ground, where with help of nature, once in awhile a tree will sprout (talking about sowing your wild oats!!)
Question: who knows what the oldest living species on earth are to date? Honorable mention awaits people with the right answer.
Yosemite means in the Indian Miwok language, the tribes that lived around this valley, "those who kill". The Miwok feared the Ahwahnee tribe living in the valley, as they were composed of renegade Paiute Indians that often raided the Miwok.
The American troops came here in 1851 to remove the Ahwahneecee since white settlers and conservationist battled over the valley.
A granite valley resulting from the formation of the Sierra plateau and glacier periods of erosion as well as river erosion. The granite had been formed 6 miles below the earth 210 to 80 million years ago (you see that geologists cover their guesstimates with big spreads in time.)
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| This is the guy telling about washing machines |
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| Granite everywhere you look |
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| This guy lives at his 7221 ft glacier point penthouse |
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| Looking down 6,000 ft. to valley floor |
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| El Capitan |
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| Half Dome |
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| Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point |
This is where shepherd John Muir's fame was established coming to this Valley as an unemployed 31 year old Scotsman looking for work. Hired by James Hutchings to run his sawmill, the only entrepreneur in the Valley promoting his hotel, basically squatting on the park grounds as he refused to pay his $1/year government lease, claiming he was there before the government created this park as signed into law by Lincoln in 1864.
Short story told: Hutchings was evicted, and Muir went on to co-found the Sierra Club and was the catalyst in the creation of various national parks: Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier and Grand Canyon National Parks.
An hour up the road we found the Mariposa Grove with Sequoia trees that tower way above us. Of course the largest of them all is in the Sequoia National Park, a tree named General Sherman, whose following statistics are daunting: 2100 years old, 275 ft tall, weighing (by estimation since they could not uproot him and place him on the scale) 2.7 million pounds with a circumference of 100 ft.
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| one of the largest diameters I saw |
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| the T ford car tunnel |
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| Sequoia's love roadside positioning: more sun |
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| Clothespin sequoia |
the "California Tunnel Tree", with a tunnel for T fords cut out of its center for touristic reasons (another "tunnel tree" died as the wind took him down).
We saw named trees such as the "bachelor and three graces", the "clothespin tree", the "grizzly giant" and the "faithful couple". The last one having a intertwined base and root system.
An over watered "newbie" tree had died and showed its smooth inner wood while the living bark crumbles away from it in death.
 |
| The faithful couple |
 |
| Can you find the dead Sequoia |
It is amazing to hear how these trees fight off intruders to their shallow root system that spreads out beneath them sideways to uphold them in their height. Often less than 6 feet down the spread out as wide as 150 feet to keep their balance. Their tannic skin and root system repulses fungi and bacteria and the predominantly acid bearing trees which intrude on their need for sunshine.
The crown of a mature sequoia tree bears thousands of egg shaped cones, each one of which contains 200 seeds.
The female cones grow on the upper branches of the tree. Annual flowering on the lower branches releases pollen and depends on strong winds to have the pollen reach the upper branches where the open cones are waiting.
After pollination the cones have to fall in sunlit open spots to release seeds to the ground, where with help of nature, once in awhile a tree will sprout (talking about sowing your wild oats!!)
Question: who knows what the oldest living species on earth are to date? Honorable mention awaits people with the right answer.
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