Sept. 19th Hiking in Sequoia National Forest

The following pictures and movies are from a hike along Forestry Route 22S03 in the Sequoia National Forest. The trail is five miles long. It took me about 3 hours total to go 3 miles in, and 3 miles out. Unfortunately I did not know what a "lookout" is. It's a tower the forestry staff use to spot fires. I did not realize this and mis-read the sign and turned back two miles early. This was late in the season and the park was out of maps, plus I foolishly forgot my mapping GPS. The road is open to four wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, and horses. I saw no one else on the road that day. There are several lookouts in the Sequoia National Forest and I plan to visit them all eventually and take pictures. Here is a screen shot of the route, and a link to the google map.

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View Google Map

Signage prior to the road, which heads north off of the Great Western Divide Highway.

Some interesting spoor found along the trail. Black Bears?

These berry bushes could be the source of the mass of seeds seen in the earlier spoor. They look kinda spiky for my tastes.

Here are a few flash videos.

Here are some notes taken from Sequoia National Forest Lookouts:

"In their heyday during the 1930's there were over 8,000 fire lookouts that dotted mountain tops across the United States with over 600 in California. Today there are only a few hundred in operation. Once considered a proud symbol of our nation's conservation heritage, fire lookouts are a fading legacy. There are 11 lookouts left on the Sequoia National Forest. Oak Flat Lookout can be rented out."

1. Baker Point
2. *Bald Mountain
3. Blue Ridge
4. *Breckenridge
5. *Buck Rock
6. *Delilah
7. *Jordan Peak
8. *Mule Peak
9. *Needles
10. Oak Flat
11. *Tobias Peak

manned in the summertime*