I got home at 2am from Vegas all tired and so frustrated. consider if I drive back the next day to stick on my vacation plan will be way too crazy (man... that will be 9 hours drive to Arizona), but I really didn't want to let this accident ruin our weekend, no matter how bad my mood was, I spent a good time to find two places with reasonable driving distance as our plan B.
there will be 5 dollars day pass charge at the parking lot, The Trail of 100 Giants is one of the most popular attraction in Giant Sequoia, it's a dog friendly 1.3 mile paved loop with giant tress. we met people screaming about they didn't know they can bring their furry friend here.
this is one of those trails we usually don't like to visit due to its popularity, but who can resist to see massive giant tress?
I've been thinking about to carry Actaeas in a backpack and see if I can visit some national parks without breaking the no pets law after a friend told me she saw people hiking with their pup on their back in Sequoia, but I still have to find out if that's legal... but hey if I don't ever let him touch the ground, does that count?
we got here at 4pm in the afternoon, surprisingly this place is not as crowded as I thought it would be, but it did slowly filled up around 5pm.
I had mixed feelings when I walked up and touched those tress, they are too massive, too old, and incredible to believe
I felt so little and insignificant compare to those trees that have been around for thousands of years, It is humbling to stand before a living part of nature that is so ancient, its almost close to "frightening" if I really have to find a word to describe my feelings.
there are smelly water running around here, that will be the part that I don't like about this place
1.3 mile did not take us too long to finish even we did spent time on each of the tree we walked by, since sun will set at 8:30, we still have plenty of time to enjoy go somewhere else!
I planed this visit because Remington Hot Spring trail only takes 0.4 mile from the trailhead to the hot spring, we got there at 6:30pm, wasn't too worry about loosing the sun.
the way to the hot spring doesn't have a clear sign (or at least I did not find one), it should be on the same side of the parking lot, we found our way down by asking people who were camping there. could be because of too close to camping area, this place is really not clean.
0.4 mile wasn't easy for me, the trail with inclines down was all sandy slippery, I even had to hold onto trees or grass to help so I don't slip and fall all the way down. so make sure you have proper footwear if you tend to trip over your feet all the times just like me, water shoes did not gave me enough friction.
I managed to get down without breaking an arm which is remarkable, and did not find this place as clean as the deep creek hot spring we visited two years ago, some area smells really funny.
we walked back and forth but couldn't find the hot spring spot
with a tree looking like this, I made a pretty good assumption that springs is flooded they could be all under the water
there were no clear directions, we failed to find any pool remain there.
I read some posts on yelp after that day, people did mention there should be a upper pool still intact, better luck next time I guess.
but in the other hand, I took some advantage of the lighting we got at that moment to take bunch of photos before sunset
I am glad that I did not let my emotion drag me down or even punish myself by calling this weekend off after I realized I can't go to Arizona, this is truly a great improvement of my bad temper.
