Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

This morning our alarm went off at 5am and we were both feeling a bit tired after the multiple early morning starts. We left a bit lately than we wanted at 5:45am but thankfully once again we made it through the park without having to pay. We were pretty happy that we had made it into the park everyday without paying.

It was a bit over an hour to get to Mariposa Grove Visitor Centre. We took the road that leads towards Glacier Point before we drove past the Glacier Point turn off and down towards Mariposa.

We arrived at the Welcome Centre and were one of the first cars in the parking lot. We decided that as we would be finished the walk before lunch we would leave some food in the car. There were a few bear boxes to store food in but no signs about bears frequenting the area so we thought we would be okay.

It was a 3.5km walk to the start of the Sequoia trail, and we were walking at quite a fast pace. My legs weren’t feeling too sore even in the uphill sections. We arrived at the start of Mariposa Trail and took some photos next to the sign. We reviewed the map at the start of the trail and decided we would walk to Wawona Point along the Mariposa Grove Trail which was a 11.3km round trip, which also went past all the Sequoia trees of significance.

Giant sequoias are among the world's rarest trees. Scientists estimate there are fewer than 20,000 naturally-occurring giant sequoias left that have a diameter greater than 3 m. Within the Mariposa Grove there are over 400 Giant Sequioas. These trees only grow within a 14.5 km wide, 402 km long portion of the Sierra Nevada. Giant sequoias can measure more than 11 m in diameter, and 30 m in circumference. They can live more than 3,000 years and grow as tall as 91 m.

As we started walking along the trail a bus load of people arrived as you could take a shuttle from the Welcome Centre to the start of trail. I said to Scott to hurry up and walk quickly but he wanted to read the signs along the way. We arrived at the first tree the Fallen Monarch a tree that had fallen over a couple of hundred years ago and showed the massive root system. We walked to the Grizzly Giant which is one of Mariposa Grove's most notable trees, with a height of 63.7 m tall, a diameter of 8.5 m and 29 m in circumference at its base. We continued along our track and quickly lost the people behind us who didn’t seem to be walking to Wawona Point.

Along the way it was a steady uphill climb and we stopped to take photos of the different trees which included the Bachelor and Three Graces, a group of 4 trees with there roots intertwined, the Clothespin tree which had a shape like a clothespin at the base, the Columbia tree which is one of the tallest trees at 87m, the Faithful couple which are two trees at the base which have joined together, and the California Tunnel Tree which has a man made tunnel created through the trunk.

Along the way we also saw a few deer, they didn’t seem to concerned that we were talking past but we stopped and looked at them so we didn’t scare them. We also saw lots of chickarees running up and down trees and eating pinecones.

We made it to Wawona Point and were the only ones there. We ate breakfast and took in the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. It was all downhill back to the Mariposa Grove centre and it wasn’t long before we were walking around crowds of people who had only done the short 2km walk.

We continued through to the Welcome Centre where our car was parked and arrived back around 1:30pm. In total we walked 20.65km and ascended 585m.Read more