Backpacking:

	Ohlone Wilderness Trail
	South Desolation Wilderness
	Bull Run Lake

Trip Reports:

	Pinnacles 03/04
	Death Valley 10/03
	Reno 07/03
	Fourth of July 2003
	Memorial Day 2003
	Carson-Iceberg 11/02
	Yosemite 10/02
	Mt. Whitney 08/02
	Carson-Iceberg 07/02

Other Links:

	Birds
	Wildflowers
	Gear
	External Hiking Links

I was glad my mom warned us of mosquitoes on this trail - they were abundant. We slathered ourselves with repellant and they pretty much left us alone thereafter. From the trailhead (which apparently sometimes has maps available, but not today), we hiked for a mile through a pretty little meadow, through dogwoods, fragrant azalea, across gushing Beaver Creek, and through a pine forest to the start of the south grove loop itself, just past a fireroad crossing.

The big trees slowly started to reveal themselves to our searching eyes as we hiked onwards on the well-worn trail. Although it was the day before the Fourth of July, there were only a couple other travellers on the trail, which suited us fine. I stopped to take a picture of a fallen tree when whzzzzzzzz-THWAP!! A rather large pinecone fell from a great height, landing only a foot or so from me - yikes! Had it hit me, I have no doubt I'd have been fairly seriously hurt. We passed the Kansas Group and came to the start of the 0.7mi spur trail that leads to the largest trees in the park.

We first saw "the Twins", a pair of trees that grew so closely together that their trunks merged and then came to the signed Palace Hotel Tree, so named because it reminded early explorers of the grandeur of San Francisco's famous hotel. Like many giant sequoias, the palace hotel tree had been scarred by fire and was missing much of its top, but it lived on. We spent a few pondering the sheer size of the behemoth tree, then continued onwards on the lovely trail. We soon came to the Agassiz Tree, the largest in the park, and one of the ten biggest in the world. To say it is large is seriously understating things! Its trunk is 25 feet in diameter. Walking around it actually takes some time, as its circumference is nearly 500 feet! This was quite easily the largest tree I've ever seen. Unfortunately 1) the lighting was all wrong for getting much in the way of pictures, and 2) there were hordes of bugs swarming around, so we didn't linger for too long. I've read that there are other nice trees to be seen further down the spur trail, although it officially ends at the Agassiz Tree, but we didn't want to exert ourselves, so we turned back. When we got to the beginning of the spur trail, we turned left, crossed a babbling mosquito-laden creek, and hiked back on the other part of the loop to the fireroad. This leg was also very pretty with nice views of a handfull of sequoias and no people at all. We came back to the fireroad and returned to the car.

I liked this hike more than the nearby North Grove Trail, probably because its much, much less-travelled. That it has larger trees helps too, although there's not nearly the density of sequoias that exist at other places. Next time I'm here it'd be fun to explore the further reaches of the preserve, as off-trail hiking is permitted, and is something I enjoy quite a bit.

Hike Stats:

Distance:	5mi
Total Time:	2h 51m
Elevation gain:	~500 feet
Difficulty:	7
Scenery:	8 - big trees!
Trail condition/markings/etc:	8.5
Overall rating:	8