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Today, we visited the Nelder Grove of sequoia trees just south of Yosemite. The grove is part of the Sierra National Forest.

We tried driving all the way to the campground parking area, but the road was impassible due to snowfall. It was exciting to look up after we'd reached the loop trail and see this!

The contrast between young and old is very defined in the forest. The sequoias we walked among today were between 2000 and 3000 years old.

The bark feels kind of spongy, and in older trees is sometimes two feet thick! This protects the tree against insects and other wildlife, fire and cold weather.

Some of the trees are charred from fires long ago.

The bark of the ponderosa pine has a beautiful texture.

More ponderosa pine bark.

This is wolf lichen living on the bark of an incense cedar.

Another detail.... It's so delicate looking, but the yellow-green color is so intense.

Still plenty of snow on the ground in places.

Looking up...

...looking down.

The good folks at the U.S. Forest Service are getting the word out.

Exhibit A for why we couldn't drive in to the parking area.

This will give you a sense of scale, but most of the bigger trees we saw today had a circumference of between 70 and 80 feet.