We left Fresno and went south east into Kings Canyon National Park where we then entered Sequoia National Park - the home of the worlds largest tree called the General Sherman!
We drove through the park and stopped at the 'Valley of Giants' where the General Sherman is but there are plenty of other huge trees too.
The General Sherman is the largest tree in the world by volume - a few other tree trunks are wider or taller but no other tree has more wood in its trunk than this one! The top of it is dead so it no longer grows taller but its volume keeps increasing as it grows wider. Its girth at the base of the trunk is 109 feet or 33m! The tree is estimated to be between 2,300 - 2,700 years old!
We took the 'congress trail' to see some of the other giants!
These trees really are amazing, their bark is so thick that they can withstand enormous fire damage yet still stay alive and continue to grow, they are also resistant to a lot of diseases, so this helps them reach thousands of years old.
All four of us are in this photo each at the base of the trees...
Martin's lunch almost as big as General Sherman...
Whilst we walked around we realised that there was quite an echo so Martin started doing some funny monkey noises, and all of a sudden there was a 'rooooaaarrr' that replied to him! Ray thought there was a guy behind us having us on, but Mart did it again and again this 'rroooooaaarrr' replied! It sounded suspiciously like a bear!
We carried on walking the trail until Ray shouted "BEAR"! At first we thought he was pulling our leg but his voice was strangley higher than usual when he said "no there's a bear on that log"!
And what do you know, it was....
She was fairly close but every step we took closer she took another way away from us so she always kept a certain distance between us (thanks goodness!).
She had been tagged by the park and had what looked like a tracker on her too. Just as they guys were taking their photos I noticed out of the corner of my eye two little black dots moving down a tree trunk that was a lot closer to us. And amazingly it was two cubs!
As soon as those cubs hit the floor she started walking towards us so we walked away and let her and her family get on with it from a safe distance.
Well we was all on a high now! What an amazing experience to meet a wild bear and her cubs, and come away unharmed! Brilliant!
We also got to feed some of the cute chipmunks in the park...
These last few days have got to be my favourite of America so far, the nature and wildlife along with the scenery here is just to die for, we shall be back!
We then left the park and had a long drive into the town of Ridgecrest where we stayed the night.
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