Tuttle Invasion - Day 3

We all managed to get a good night's sleep even after the bear sighting the night before. At least I did. I didn't ask the others. But they seemed awake enough in the morning (the evening drive home would be a whole other story), so I figured it was safe to assume they did too. Hey, I figure. It's what I do.

And it's a good thing they did too, because I was about to wear them out with the most strenuous day of sightseeing yet. After a quick breakfast, we walked over to the Muir Grove trailhead and hit the trail to the big trees. It was about 9am, so it was nice and cool, and early enough that not many people were out and about. This trail is one of my favorite hikes ever. Just a couple miles, but steep enough in some areas to get your heart going a little. About halfway through there's a nice rock outcropping looking over a wooded valley that is nice to take a break at for a few minutes. After that, there is a rocky section, but once you cross over the first creek, a lush, green, ferny foliage blanket covers each side of the trail. There is a log crossing another creek, and then just a few switchbacks opening up into the grove of Sequoias. The grove is fairly hidden, so it's a bit of a surprise encountering the first Sequoia. But after you do, man, it is cool. It's a little secluded and is a much preferable way to see some big trees than the Giant Forest Museum with its sidewalks, and buses, and crowds.

all I could think of was Harry & the Hendersons

Muir Grove

Muir Grove Hike from Ryan Tuttle on Vimeo.

After some spending a half hour or so marveling at and walking around the grove, we hiked back down to camp and packed up our things. Next we decided we wanted to do the guided tour of Crystal Cave. We got tickets and drove down the narrow, windy road 13 miles to the cave parking lot. Then walked another half mile (and 30 stories elevation) down to the cave entrance. It's about a 45 minute guided tour, and one of the nicest parts about it is the cool air, a welcome reprieve from the hot summer waiting for us outside. It gets tight in places and Woody's flashlight died, but we managed to survive the tour (and the horrible comedy attempts by the tour guide).

woody realizes his flashlight is out

woody enjoying the tour

After a dreadful lunch at the Visitors Center (actually I think this was before the tour, but I'm not much for rewrites, more of a stream of consciousness writer, just kind of putting down whatever comes to mind, like how I'm thinking of that time I left my lunchbox outside the cafeteria for something like 3 weeks in third grade, and it was all stinky and moldy, and I think the office had to make an announcement for me to come and get it, and it had these cartoon sharks on it, or was that my art box? I really can't remember but anyway, yeah lunch was probably before the cave tour), we drove over to Moro Rock, and hiked the short, but steep trail up to the top. Actually it was more like a run; I think Woody and Dad need to work on their hike pacing because they were leaving me in their dust. The top of Moro Rock offers a panoramic view of the surround hills and the winding roads of the park. The way down was a lot easier of course, but Woody and Dad thought that maybe they had had enough hiking for the day.

Tuttles at the top. boosh.

crazy trail

Which was fine by me. In any case, the next activity was more car-centric, namely driving through / under Tunnel Log. It's fairly self explanatory from the pictures below. Letting Woody drive was probably a violation of the rental agreement, but I told him not to run into anything and if he thought someone was going to run into him just through it in park real quick so he isn't technically "driving". That works, right? Right?

iconic

The last stop of the day before the long drive back to El Segundo was The Giant Forest Museum. We looked around the museum quickly (it's really only one room, the museum is mostly the trees outside I think), and then strolled down the Big Trees Trail (though even I was tired of walking at this point). We walked about a quarter mile to just about where the trail hits the road and figured we would turn around and head back, but we decided to just cross the road before we did. There was a small crowd gathered around on the other side looking into the woods. We couldn't figure out what everyone was staring at, but then two little girls pointed us to where a mama bear and two cubs were laying around in the brush 15 yards away. We stuck around and saw the three bears head off deeper into the woods with bear management personnel trying to scare them away from the road. Sure glad we didn't turn around earlier.

spot the bears?

After that we started down the road out of the park and into the heat of the flatlands below. We stopped for dinner at the Bakersfield IHOP (actually one of many) right next to Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. We were tired and smelly and sweaty and sore, but I think we all thought it worth it.

More pics.