[pct-l] Sequoia Trees

[Aaron Wallace]

This would be the Tuolumne Grove, which is located near Crane Flat at
the junction of the Tioga Road and the Big Oak Flat road.  One could
probably take the daily bus from Tuolumne Meadows to the Tuolumne Grove
parking lot
(http://www.yosemitepark.com/Activities_GuidedActivities_TuolumneMeadows
.aspx --the bus returns from TM is in the afternoon), visit the grove,
camp in the Crane Flat campground, and take the bus the next day back to
Tuolumne Meadows.  You'd probably need to arrange for pickup at Crane
Flat in advance--I'm not sure it's a normal stop for the hiker's
shuttle, but I do know the bus will stop at various trailheads along the
Tioga Road.  Crane Flat has a small store in the gas station, but there
is no post office/mail drop capability--use Tuolumne Meadows for that.

For a NOBO hiker, one could return to the PCT by (hitch?) hiking to
Hetch Hetchy, then heading up the Beehive/Moraine Ridge Trail to rejoin
the PCT in Jack Main Canyon.  (I'd recommend this over crossing the
Tuolumne at Pate Valley...)  There are no resupply (or, for that matter,
non-hydroelectric-related) facilities at Hetch Hetchy, but there is a
backpacker's campground.

All in all, for someone who hasn't seen a sequoia grove, the side trip
may be worthwhile, but the Tuolumne Grove is much smaller than, say, the
Grant Grove, Giant Forest, or Mariposa Grove.  However, getting to any
of those from the PCT is more difficult.  The most scenic sequoia grove
spur, time/distance no object, would probably be to take the High Sierra
Trail from Kern Canyon over Kaweah Gap to Crescent Meadow (in the Giant
Forest) and back, or maybe hitch to Grant Grove and/or to Roads End and
rejoin the PCT in the Rae Lakes area.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net 
> [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Hiker97 at aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 1:40 PM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] Sequoia Trees
> 
> If I wanted to see some Sequoias on  a PCT hike, I would 
> hitch down the highway at Tuolumne Meadows toward Yosemite  
> Valley.  I seem to remember a grove about half way there was 
> a parking lot  and you had to follow a road for about a mile 
> down to the grove.  It  was a nice grove, but then you had to 
> walk back up the road to the parking  lot.