CALIFORNIA: SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, TOKOPAH FALLS TRAIL

 August 11, 2020

After lunch on the last day of our Great Tree Adventure Trip, we headed to Tokopah Falls, a 3.4 mile roundtrip hike next to the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River. The trail ends at the head of a valley where snow melt from the High Sierras cascades (although it was barely a trickle when we were there at the end of summer) over granite rocks.

The stunning variety of life is impossible to ignore on these wilderness hikes.

And I'm not talking about only the flora. Do you see anything in the photo below? We didn't see it at first either.

But then this specimen strolling towards us, and my heart about leapt out of my body. I've seen bears in the wild before, but usually from my comfy seat inside a car.

He was much less bothered by us than we were by him, that's for sure.

Whew. Well, okay. Let's just hope he isn't a big cub with Mama Bear lurking nearby.

The "waterfall," if it can be called that, was to the left of these granite peaks.

The waterfall was so small that I wasn't really sure if I was looking at the right thing, but the rock formations were certainly awe-inspiring.

This is not a loop trail, so we had to go back the way we came.

This time we knew what to watch for. People hiding behind trees is one tell-tale sign, so when we saw that, we stopped. Yep. There he was.  He looks a little skinny, don't you think?  Bob made a move in his direction, and the bear turned and snarled. That's when I decided Bob would make a good shield. He wasn't too pleased when I pushed him in front of me.

The bear was raking the fallen logs with his long, sharp claws, looking for food. I tried to look as untasty as possible.

Oh, yeah. He is coming towards us. Bob? Bob! Let me get behind you!

The bear crossed the trail we had just walked down. See the guy in the background standing behind a big stump? Apparently that's what I was supposed to do instead of standing behind Bob. But how could the stump defend me if the bear attacked? Huh, Bob?

We did make it safely to the car, and from Tokopah Falls we drove about 80 miles to Visalia, where we spent the night. The next day we drove 225 miles to the Ontario Airport, getting Sam there with a little time to spare before he had to catch his 3:45 flight to Salt Lake City.

This was a very fun trip. I know many of my pictures look the same--lots of Really Big Trees. But each time we walked into a new forest, it felt like a new experience. For four days I felt consistent awe. In addition, we got to spend the time with our son, who is passionate about trees and forests and taught us a lot about what we were seeing. His interest and excitement were contagious. All in all, that adds up to a pretty good trip!