Experiencing Nature

I didn't really know much about Sequoia or King's Canyon National Parks when we were planning our route...except that the parks had been set aside to protect large groves of the giant sequoia trees.  Matt had stopped here on a childhood trip and seemed to be impressed, and it was in the general direction we were heading - so why not stop?  After spending just one day wandering around the Giant Forest area of Sequoia National Park, I would say...how soon can we get back here?

There is a quietness in the forest here that I have never experienced anywhere else.  Not only are the trees ancient, but the air feels old as well.  A reverence stilled my spirit the deeper we crept into the groves - and quieted our voices to a whisper many times so that we would have to ask, "Why are you whispering?"  But at one point we realized that dense in the groves of the giant trees, our voices were muffled for us...as if the trees were telling us, "Stop.  Be still.  Listen to the stories we have to tell you."   Mixed in with the trees are meadows of green grass and other plants that seem to belong elsewhere, yet they are quietly hidden as if the trees are guarding them - keeping them sacred for the animals who dwell there.  Over a century ago, the meadows must have been much different.  We learned that people lived in these woods and grazed their cattle and livestock in the meadows - wow.  I tried to imagine...

It wasn't cattle we found in these ancient woods - but bears - two of them.  After eating lunch and lounging on some rocks just off the trail as we admired a particularly fire-scarred tree called the "Black Arch", we were lazily strolling along down the trail.  Abby and I were discussing which book she might read next and were leading our pack when Isaac yelled from behind, "BEAR!"  I stopped in my tracks and looked up just as a bear was bounding across the trail maybe 50 feet in front of us... (Matt told me later that I instinctively threw both of my arms out beside me as if to stop the kids from going any closer, which I found somewhat humorous.  How would that have stopped the bear...?)  We all stopped and watched as the bear wandered off into the forest.  She looked up at us as if to say, "Hmm...more hikers - you guys come through here all the time."  We watched her forage in the dead trees looking for bugs and wander on before we continued on down the trail.  But just a short time later, we ran across another bear wandering the forest floor - aware of our presence, but clearly not letting it interrupt what she was doing. 

Amazing.  That is why we hike - to experience solitude, but also for the chance that we might get lucky enough to witness nature in action.  To see a bear in the zoo is one thing, but to stand there...close enough that it takes your breath away for a moment...and watch a bear in the wild.  It is again a reminder of how small a role we really play in the universe, and how we have been charged with caring for it.

 

Tracy