Pick up a copy of the park service\u2019s \u201cMariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias\u201d pamphlet (available in several languages) from the dispenser and begin walking the gentle path.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll soon arrive at Fallen Monarch, which came to the nation\u2019s attention in 1899 via a widely circulated photo of U.S. Calvary officers (with their horses!) posed atop the horizontal tree. Cross the road, ascend some steps, and cross the road again.<\/p>\n
Mariposa Grove: Not a place for solitude, but you can hike past much of the crowd.<\/p><\/div>\n
The path leads to Three Graces, with roots so intertwined that should one tree fall, the other two would topple as well. Apart from the three is a more solitary sequoia dubbed The Bachelor.<\/p>\n
Next visit Old Grizzly, grove patriarch, blackened, scarred and estimated to have sprouted 2,700 years ago; it\u2019s likely the oldest sequoia in Mariposa Grove. For most visitors, the famed tree is the unofficial \u201ctourist turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not far from Grizzly Giant is California Tunnel Tree. No nineteenth century visit was complete without a stage ride through a tree with a tunnel in its midsection. It\u2019s hike-through not drive-through these days.<\/p>\n
Onward on Upper (or Outer) Loop Trail to the Faithful Couple, two large trees fused together for 50 feet or so along their lower trunks, but separated above. Inspect wildfire-bisected Clothespin Tree meet the tram road, and join Museum Trail. Descend to Grove Museum and learn more about sequoia ecology and history. The museum is located on the site of Yosemite guardian Galen Clark\u2019s 1864 cabin.<\/p>\n
The tree tour continues with the curious Telescope Tree; look up the trunk to see the sky. Thousands of wagons, then cars drove through Wawona Tunnel Tree, from 1881, when a tunnel was bored through it, until the big winter of 1968-9 when it fell. The path curves west to visit Galen Clark Tree, honoring the Yosemite pioneer and discoverer of Mariposa Grove.<\/p>\n
Return to the trailhead via the sequoias by backtracking to the museum and descending to the parking lot. Or take Outer Loop Trail, which travels out of the sequoias into a lovely mixed forest of incense cedar, sugar pine and white fir, and circles back.<\/p>\n
Hike On.
\nJohn McKinney,
\nThe Trailmaster<\/p>\n
Interested in more hikes in Yosemite? Check out HIKE Yosemite<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To Grizzly Giant is 1.6 miles round trip with 100-foot elevation gain; or 4.8-mile loop with 1,000-foot elevation gain Mariposa Grove is by far the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}