REMEMBRANCES OF THE LAST CALIFORNIAN TOUR “JONAS OF THE SEQUOIAS”

Visiting historical parks on the Sierra Nevada I’ve given a new name to two huge and very beautiful sequoias: one in the little Lost Grove, along General Highway, and another in the amazing Giant Forest at Sequoia National Park.

BIG MOTHER BEAR, LOST GROVE

22 days of touring sleeping in my tent, here in what americans call the Bear Country. And the constant fear to be visited by an angry and hungry bear in the dark of night. But in this Bear Country I saw only one bear not so far from General Sherman around 11 a.m. Driving between King’s Canyon N P and the Sequoia N P, along General Highway, the legendary road connecting General Grant Grove and General Sherman’s Giant Forest I stopped at the little Lost Grove, where I find this huge giant sequoia with a black open mouth, a kind of womb full of night; entering inside I called «Hey yuo, goodmorning, no bear inside?» So I called it Big Mother Bear.

DOUBLE SPLENDOR, GIANT FOREST

You know this is the most spectacular place where you could meet so many mature giant sequoias in the world: it is Giant Forest as John Muir called this place. Main attraction is the biggest tree on the planet Earth, General Sherman, but you could touch dozens and dozens of other big specimens. Among them a cinnamon sly sequoia called McKinley; walking along Congress Trail direction General Sherman there is a double tree, very big, you could pass through them at the base. It’s a vegetal living cathedral that I called Double Splendor!