We drove from Fresno up into Sequoia NP to see the giant redwoods. There are two redwoods: the coastal redwood (sequoia sempervirens) which we saw during our visit to the north coast of California - one is the tallest tree on earth; and the giant redwoods (sequoia gigantea) which are bulkier although also quite tall. There are several groves of these giants in the park and we saw many good examples. We also walked a trail in the are near the General Sherman tree. During that walk we spotted a Black Bear (really cinnamon colored) munching on aquatic vegetation in a meadow (photo). We kept walking along the trail above the meadow until we were quite near to the bear. I took some pictures. Finally the bear noticed us and raced out of the water and up the slope ahead of us. At that point he wasn't sure what we were, and since we were downwind from him, he couldn't smell us. So he came closer for a better smell (photo). And closer. And closer. At that point we slowly backed away until we were out of his sight. He didn't follow any closer and we were relieved. We visited the Sherman tree along with a large number of other people. Finally it was time to leave the mountains without so much as a sniffle from any grouse. However, construction again slowed our progress and it took a long time to get out of the park. We set the gps for Monterey since we are scheduled to go on a pelagic trip there tomorrow. We checked in to the motel I had reserved on line only to find that a Motel 6 was right down the street, a veritable motel row. We drove to the waterfront and checked out the location of the parking lot and boat area for tomorrow. We found a grocery for supplies. Then it was time for a wonderful meal on Fisherman's Wharf. No new birds today. Off to bed for a good night's sleep.
Those bears. Always with the sniffing. Maybe you should have asked him about sooty grouse locations before skedaddling off.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on the pelagic!