Getting High

2016 marks the centennial of the US National Park Service (NPS). It may sound like a long time but national parks already existed: Yellowstone, the very first, was established in 1872, and by the time of the NPS creation in August 1916, about a dozen areas had been listed. To mark the occasion, I decided to visit a number of them in California that had been on my list for a while: Yosemite (established in 1890), Kings Canyon (1940) and Sequoia (1890).

Yosemite, the third oldest national park, covers 1,169 square miles (3,028 km²) and receives four million visitors annually, most of them in summer. Its most popular area is Yosemite Valley, not only due to year round accessibility but also because it is where many of the park’s highlights are found:
• Yosemite Falls – known as the highest fall in the US at 2,425 ft (739 m), though some argue that there are actually three distinct tiers: Upper Yosemite Falls, Middle Cascade and Lower Yosemite Falls. Regardless of whether you view them as one or three, they are impressive and it is an unforgettable sight when the waters of Upper Falls seemingly dance to the wind. To see them in all their glory, visit in spring when the falls are full; in the popular midsummer season, they become a trickle.
• El Capitan – rising almost 3,600 ft (1,100 m) from the valley floor, El Capitan was once considered impossible to climb due to its sheer vertical face. The feat was only achieved in 1958 (five years after the first Everest summit), and nowadays the granite monolith is one of the favorite challenges for rock climbers.
• Half Dome – arguably the most grueling hike in Yosemite, Half Dome stands at 8,836 ft (2,693 m) and in 1865, its summit was declared “perfectly inaccessible, being probably the only one of the prominent points about the Yosemite which never has been, and never will be, trodden by human foot”. A mere ten years later, the summit was reached by a blacksmith named George Anderson who drilled holes in the granite (!) and installed ropes. These were later replaced by the steel cables in use today on the trail’s last 400 ft (122 m). If you are in enough good shape to climb 4,800 ft (1,463 m) from the valley floor to the peak, you will earn sore muscles and the right to wear a “I Made It To The Top” T-shirt.

If you can do without the pain and the self-aggrandizing T-shirt, there are a number of enjoyable trails around the valley, some like a stroll and even wheelchair accessible, others more challenging, especially taking into account that Yosemite Valley sits at an altitude of 3,955 ft (1,205 m), with 13% less available oxygen. It doesn’t sound much but you will feel the difference if climbing only 1,000 ft (305 m). The scenery, though, will make your gasps for air worth it.

Not far from Yosemite is Kings Canyon, one of North America’s deepest canyons where the highlight is a 35-mile (56 km) drive along Highway 180 to the aptly named Roads End. The most impressive section of the road is roughly 6,000 ft (1,830 m) above sea level, twisting along soaring granite cliffs on one side and precipitous drops to the bottom of the canyon on the other. Great road to force you to stop multi-tasking.

But the big surprise came in Sequoia National Park, home to giant sequoia trees, some of the world’s largest and oldest living beings. They occur naturally only on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California, at altitudes between 5,000 and 7,000 ft (1,500 – 2,100 m), growing to an average height of 165 to 280 ft (50-85 m) with a 20 to 26 ft (6-8 m) diameter. Surprisingly for trees of this size, their roots are very shallow – no more than 12 to 14 feet (~ 4 m) deep, spreading over half an acre or more.

Yes, your neck will hurt when you look up at them for a while. But for such gigantic and robust trees, they feel very soft when touched, their bark almost feathery. Though seemingly delicate, this bark is key to their longevity: chemicals in it make them resistant to insect damage, disease and fire, therefore giant sequoias live thousands of years (the famous General Sherman sequoia, the world’s largest tree by volume, is estimated to be 2,200 years old) and die mostly by toppling. Their discovery in the mid-19th century spawned countless timber mills in the Sierra Nevada, but thanks to the establishment of national and state parks/monuments in the region, sequoia logging is now illegal. Some would say that they have become useless, but I’ll go with this lyric by Pulp: “Yeah, the trees, those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing”.