Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park, Ca, USA - 21/10/09

[M4RTIN]

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During our trip to California at the end of October this year, Jessica & I left Chase with Jessica's parents and we took off for a few days up to The Sequoia's.
I'd never been before and really wanted to see the "Big Trees"

We stayed in Three Rivers just outside Sequoia National Park and we only had one full day to see as much as we could.
We arrived on the Wednesday, late in the afternoon, and drove as far as The Giant Forest visitors centre to get a first look at these massive trees. It was very impressive. Daylight goes in minutes so we didn't get more than half an hour to have a look around.

We started off early on Thursday morning (29th) and stopped off at the main visitors centre to pick up some maps and get an idea of the best sites to see and the times we would need to see them. The big trees were further into the park, but Moro Rock was fairly close by so we decided to go climb it. (I use that term loosely)

01. Moro Rock - Taken from the road about 1500ft below the summit.

Moro Rock is a granite dome with a 400-step stairway to the 6725ft summit. The stairway starts only 300ft below the summit, so to say we climbed it is being very generous. Was more like a short stroll after my long day on Ben Bhuidhe, 2 weeks earlier.

We followed the road through the forest to the start of the stairway, where only a couple of cars were parked. We started off up the steps about 10:00. We stopped about halfway up to take a few pictures and to allow someone ahead of us to finish taking his own pictures on his way back down.

02. Moro Rock - Halfway up, looking across The Great Western Divide to 12,000ft peaks.

As we passed the guy making his way down, we exchanged the usual niceties, only to be completely confused by his very strange accent and dialect. We asked him where he was from and low and behold; there were 2 Glaswegians on Moro Rock that day. We pop up everywhere, us Scots!
We had a brief chat and continued on our way, reaching the summit not long after. Jessica was very glad of the handrails, her legs went a bit wobbly for a while, but with thousands of feet drops all around, it was understandable.

03. Moro Rock - Staircase Path approaching the summit.

When we reached The Summit we were the only ones there and the views were incredible. We got about 5 minutes alone on The Summit until we heard, again in a distinctly Glaswegian accent, "I thought i'd come back up to huv ma photae taken."

This worked well for us, I used his wide lensed, DSLR to take his pictures, and he used my lowly point & shoot to take ours. The results aren't too bad, though I must admit that I was a little jealous of his Nikon.
The rest of our pictures don't need any comments from me, except to say that the yellow box in the next one is where we took the first picture from, about 1500ft below the summit.

04. Moro Rock - Views down The Great Western Divide from the summit.

05. Moro Rock - Jessica & Myself on the summit.

06. Moro Rock - Me, officially recorded at 6725ft - I won't beat this in Scotland.

This was a great start to an amazing day, which Jessica summed up perfectly...
"And People Say God Doesn't Exist"

[ChrisW]

I love those giant sequoias Martin, I've been down to California several times to explore them but never made my way up this lump of granite It never ceases to amaze me how often I meet my fellow countrymen in the most remote places, your chance encounter with the only guy on the rock seems to sum that up perfectly

[Mal Grey]

Nice one. Went up Moro rock in 1996 (I think), whilst touring he Sierra Nevada. Really enjoyed Sequoia NP, had some great forest walks too, those trees are simply amazing.

[john923]

I knew that name was familiar and, yes, we were there 14 Aug 1999 after doing a not dissimilar lump on the Little Baldy Trail. It's a great viewpoint, though I recall American folks who were there at the same time using the words 'Awesome' and 'Cool' like they were going out of fashion!

[M4RTIN]

I love those giant sequoias Martin, I've been down to California several times to explore them but never made my way up this lump of granite It never ceases to amaze me how often I meet my fellow countrymen in the most remote places, your chance encounter with the only guy on the rock seems to sum that up perfectly

Turned out, he actually grew up less than 10 miles away from my own family on the outskirts of Glasgow.
I blame John Muir