Sequoia NP / Close Encounters of the Bear kind

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We had a rough day leading up to our entry into Sequoia NP.  Many wrong turns were taken, as well as a road with more curves than the road to Hana.  I think it took us about 2 hours to go 30 miles.  Our nerves were frayed by the time we entered the park, but all was better once we got our first glimpse of the monster trees.

Sequoia is home to the largest living tree in the world named the General Sherman tree.  it's more than 2,000 years old, it weighs 2.7 million pounds, stands 274.9 feet tall and has a circumference of 102.6 feet.  It's largest branch has a diameter of 6.8 feet.  That's one big tree.

Brian grabbed the can of bear spray from my pocket and had the saftey latch off faster than you can say "Gentle Ben".

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We decided to grab a campsite in the park, as it was getting late and I was tired and crabby.  We told the Ranger we wanted the best site available, and he said we could have a more private walk-in site as long as we didn't mind a short walk up a little hill.  Apparently his idea of a short walk up a little hill and my idea are two very different things.  Keep in mind we had just climbed Mt. Whitney, so I was shot and my feet were blistered bloody stumps.  We had to climb a huge dirt hill with all our gear, and it was about 300 feet from the car.  In the future I'll remember to clarify distance with the Ranger before I take the site.

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As with most every campground we've been in, bear warnings are posted everywhere, and all campsites have big metal bear lockers for your food yet we've never actually seen one.  All that changed at 8:37pm.  We were cleaning up camp getting ready for bed and I had just grabbed our can of bear spray and put it in my pocket as I was dousing the fire.  Suddenly Brian frantically whispered "Anne, I see a bear"!  Since I'm used to Brian always being a smart-ass like that, I told him to shut up.  Then he said it again.  And again I didn't believe him.  Then he used his "Serious Brian" voice, and I knew he wasn't kidding.  I looked just behind our tent, and a big black bear walked through the trees.  Brian grabbed the can of bear spray from my pocket and had the saftey latch off faster than you can say "Gentle Ben".  We scared it off, and a few minutes later heard other campsites trying to get rid of it.

Now THIS is what I call a pinecone!
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Needless to say we didn't sleep a wink that night.  All that was going through my mind was "Dear God, please don't let the bear eat me during the night and please don't let it bear break into my car".  The next morning I went to the car and was relieved to find it intact.  But then I took a closer look and found bear snot and bear paw prints and even claw marks all over the windows on both sides of the car.  And upon even further inspection we saw that it had actually pulled the molding out on both windows.  Either it got scared off by something or it decided we didn't have anything special in the car and it took off.

The biggest tree in the world - for real.
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So that's our bear story.  I tried to get pictures of the snot marks, but they didn't turn out very well.

Anne