The Never-ending Story? (Part 3)

While both of us had been to Yosemite before, neither of us had ever been to the grove of Redwood Trees.  We decided there was no time like the present
So we abandoned our parking spot (which was quickly filled) and headed out.  The directions said 36 miles. . .

It was a long drive. . . lots of winding roads and slow vehicles, but we made it to the tram stop (it was suggested  to take the tram do to there no being enough room for all the cars at the grove.)

There was a stowaway!

but other than that, the tram was nearly empty.

We didn’t have a lot of time before the last tram left for our parking spot.  For some reason, we weren’t too keen to take a 2 mile hike after exploring what we could of the grove.
It was more crowded there than we expected.  We bypassed the tours and headed to the map to make our plan.

We headed up the trail.  (One thing we discovered was that while we were happy to not go to Yosemite during the height of tourist season, we presumed that would be summer time.  We did not count on all the foreigners that would take advantage of the same situation.  Let’s just say we didn’t hear much English!)
Notice how little people look walking by that uprooted tree trunk! 

The trails were really well marked and were filled with people.

These trees have a way of putting things in perspective. . . truly awe-inspiring!

We kept seeing deer that seems to be pretty tame but were probably just so hungry that they didn’t care if anyone was around. . . so thin, so sad

We stopped by Grizzly Giant and waited for our turn for photos.  It is one of the largest trees in the world (and the oldest in the grove.)  How are you supposed to fit that in a picture?

We continued up the trail to get to our end goal, the California Tunnel Tree.  This is where we ran into some trouble.  *sigh*  I suppose it was a collision of different cultures.  We waited for our turn to take photos, but a group of three ladies were bothered by it.  They had taken their photos and had moved so we started our turn. . . but they were not happy.  No clue what the problem was, but we (meaning I) snapped quickly and we headed down the hill.

After irritating those ladies, I changed my picture taking plans.  I kept my camera by my side and snapped photos with no one knowing.  Sneaky, huh?  (and all at an angle too!)

We headed to the tram stop where we would not enjoy a nearly empty tram. 

Even though there was supposed to be a limit of how many people could ride the tram, this fellow in front of me (European) decided everyone would fit on.  We became sardines.  He was really aggressive and pushy.  It was not a comfortable two mile ride by any means, but it was so much better than walking two miles!