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Sequoia National Park, California

These are big trees! This one is named after General Sherman. Unfortunately, and not thinking ahead, I hadn't planned on putting pictures of massive vertical structures in my rectangular picture spots on this web site.

So take it from me, the trees, and there are quite a few of them in Sequoia National Park, are big.

We spoke to a warden who advised us that in his opinion, at that time in late September, there was an eighty percent chance of encountering bear in the forest. He was right.

We came across nine bears at different points along the trail. The advice given is to stay at least 150 yards away from them. Unfortunately the bear has far more control over these events than did we.

We were taking photographs of some particularly nice decaying trees and shrubbery, when the tall grass by our side started to shake unexpectedly.

Without warning, a large bear stepped out from the undergrowth on our left, not six feet from where we were standing.

It glanced at us casually and just sauntered off into the deep undergrowth to our right, where it presumably laid down and went back to sleep in the midday heat. Not six feet away yet completely silent and invisible!

In any case, fortunately for me, my wife was closer than I was and I had my running shoes on!

The squirrel and chipmunk seem rather tame in comparison, but were just as nice, if rather less dramatic encounters on our trails through the forest.

sequoia tree top
seuoia tree bottom
squirrel sequioa national park
grizzly bear sequoia
bear sequioa national park
sequoia chipmunk
All images Copyright Avery Little