Day 3 Yosemite and up to see the giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias 

Our lodge is on west Yosemite and not too far from the mariposa grove. 

It was a bendy jaw dropping drive in parts to wowona village. There is an imposing Victorian hotel here under reconstruction 

And a visitor centre. 

We continued on to the wowona parking area and from here you catch a free shuttle bus up to the mariposa grove. A ten minute drive up winding sheer drops to the drop off spot. 

There are several paths to hike and we chose the 2mile round circular hike to see the “grizzly giant “as the tallest widest sequoia in this grove is named. It is the 5th largest sequoia tree in the world.

210 feet tall and 31 feet across it’s base. It is about 1800 years old

On the way round you pass the fallen monarch, the bachelor and 3 maidens trees. And also you can walk through one tree. The Californian tunnel tree.

There are fires here regularly and we saw huge sequoias burnt black and many others that survived burnt only slightly 

Plenty of squirrels chipmunks and little black birds were up there.

The giant grizzly tree was almost at the top of the hill and we kept stopping to catch our breath. The walk round up and eventually down was worth the effort. The trees are so large that it is difficult to capture them on the phone screen 

I hope you get an idea of what their majestic presence is like.