Fresno Trip - Stage 4 Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks - Part 2
The break for lunch was worth it. Not only did Ann and I get a chance to dry off, warm up and get some fuel in our bodies, the weather decided to cooperate and stop raining. Given that there were still plenty of clouds in the air, we decided to play it safe and go to the near-by General Grant Grove in the event that the weather turned yet again. It was a good choice, and not because of the weather.
The General Grant Tree trail is actually a couple of loops that pass by, as one might imagine, the ginormous General Grant Tree. Giant Sequoias are interesting in that, like Redwoods, they have broad trunks with beautiful thick bark, but very unlike Redwoods, as you look upward they have these incredibly huge limbs that extend outward and upward. Difficult to photograph though!
So we started as we often do, stopping after only a few minutes to make our first photographs. Sometimes you just have to get the camera out and start making photographs to shake things up. And as happens so often, they weren’t very interesting. Further down the trail, Ann stopped to try and photograph some huge limbs I’d mentioned above. She had found a pretty clear view of one set of branches so she pulled out her big lens. I started looking around and, staying in one location for a bit, started seeing a mix of things.
Forests are always an orchestra of chaos, and this one was no different. The key is figuring out the score if you can. I started out with a broader landscape, but then realized that what interested me most was how the light was hitting a rock in the distance so I swapped lenses and focused on that.
Remembering my experiences at Yosemite, I started looking at tree trunks. It didn’t take me too many efforts to get into the groove of that and to come up with an image that I liked.
Ann was still focused on her branch because the skies were starting to break and she had cloud patterns to work with, so I started looking around some more and found a nice B&W image right in front of me.
We finally made our way around to the General Grant Tree. It didn’t seem much to me, so while Ann started photographing it, I looked uphill towards this draw and found several photographs. It started with a group of rocks and ferns at the bottom of the draw.
As I made wider view photographs of the draw I noticed a huge tree that had exposed its roots up a short, but steep slope. I heard it calling (something along the lines of, “Hey, stupid! Over here!”), so I huffed and puffed my way upward to take a look. Jackpot! Other than having to make sure I didn’t slip and roll down the hill (I can hear Ann laughing now), it was compose, make an image, find another one, compose, make an image . . . as fast as I could.
Strangely enough, I was seeing things in both color and black and white, so I’ll share a mix of images.
Recall, these are all from the same root-ball.
It’s like everywhere I looked, there was a composition waiting for me.
Eventually Ann scrambled up the hill to drag me away. The sun was quickly making its way to the horizon and we were at the far end of the trail so it was time to head back. It didn’t take long though until we came across an incredible burnt stump that had Ann and me dropping our backpacks and pulling out the cameras
I couldn’t believe the incredible mix of greens amongst the charred wood. It was worth the stop.
I knew there was one image I wanted to make from the parking lot, so I wanted to get back. But then I had to stop again for yet another composition.
We were finally back at the car as the temperature was starting to dive and I crossed the parking lot to see if the original image I’d seen of was as good as I’d thought. It was definitely worth grabbing the gear and hauling it over to make, and that’s what I did. And it was an image well suited to both black and white and color.
I’m not sure which one I prefer.
That was pretty much it for photographing for the day, but the day’s story doesn’t end there.
In the parking lot was an overlanding vehicle. You’ll hear the term “overlanding” from us fairly often in the future, because that’s what Ann and I are hoping to do - drive places that are generally not accessible by pavement and basically live out where we want to photograph, instead of tromping back and forth to a hotel room or even a campground every night. Now, we aren’t going to do it quite like these folks, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to wait for them to have a chat.
Those are the trees in the last photographs I posted above. And the overlanding vehicle is the one on the right, not the left (duh). I can tell you that the vehicle itself is a Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series (79 Series actually - a flat-bed 70 series) that have never been sold in the US. I know them from Africa and Iraq. Wonderful vehicles - if Toyota sold them here we’d have one already. But the bastards won’t, like most other makers of decent diesel-engined, overlanding vehicles (yes, I’m talking about the Land Rover Defender and Nissan Patrol). I couldn’t tell you who made the cab, but it’s definitely built for purpose.
A few minutes later, along came Heike and Bernd and we struck up a conversation (which I’m sure they’ve had a lot of, and we’re likely going to as well once we’re out in the Sportsmobile). They’ve been on the road since October 2013 (with summer months in Europe) traveling throughout South, Central, and now North America. When they’re finally done here, they’ll likely ship the vehicle to Asia (they haven’t decided where yet).
Here’s a map of their journey so far, not including North America!
If you want to check out their website, it’s: http://www.endlich-on-tour.com/unser-fahrzeug/index.html although you’ll need to brush up on your German. Their spoken English is excellent, but their website is in German.
Ann and I won’t be heading to Central and South America in the Sportsmobile (at least we don’t think we will . . . yet, but maybe Australia . . . .), but it was motivation for us and confirmation that it can be done! All in all, an excellent ending to a mighty fine day!