When I Get Older. . .

“. . .Will you still need me, Will you still read me, When I’m sixty-four?”

Because I am now.

Neither Trail Guy nor I had been to the main part of Sequoia National Park since before the fires (2020, 2021) and flood (2022-2023).

I love to climb Moro Rock, so that is how I chose to spend my birthday. The burned parts of the Park looked terrible, but the road is great and the unburned parts are beautiful too.

Enough yammering. Here are some photos.

Some of the dogwood leaves were changing.
Normally they don’t color up until the end of October.
Lots of steps to climb
We see Alta Peak from our house in Three Rivers so it is fun to see it closer from Moro Rock.
The red oval is circling two almost invisible plumes of smoke from the current fire at Redwood Canyon.
It looks as if the stairs end here, but if you make a sharp right, they keep on aclimbin’.
On the way up and at the top we heard an English accent, several languages we didn’t recognize, and what I think was Korean. Everyone was polite, helping each other out with photos, moving aside on narrow places.
One last look up.

Crescent Meadow was our next destination.

The road there passes the Parker Group, which is a great source of sequoias to paint, along with Tunnel Log, which I’ve also painted several times.

Tharp’s Log is an interesting spot, just about 1/2 mile from Crescent Meadow. I like seeing the human history in national parks.
It is rare to see the needles from a redwood/sequoia tree because they are usually so high up in the sky that you can’t tell what they look like. This time I kept my eyes open for a baby redwood, and voila! here it is. The needles look fluffy compared to pines, firs, and cedars. (They aren’t.)
I took this through the windshield on the way home when traffic stopped. Four Guardsmen is often a traffic stopper. Apparently people forget how to drive when they are in a national park.

The day was an experience in nostalgia. Trail Guy used to be Road Guy, with 37 years of working for Sequoia. Things now look different, because things are done differently than when he retired 11 years ago. Some are an improvement, and some in the category of Are You Kidding??

It was also a day of comparison. Seemed like Moro Rock’s steps were a bit steeper than remembered, and the handrail seemed a bit lower. The Generals Highway was infinitely better than the Mineral King road. The trails were mostly paved and certainly much flatter than in Mineral King. We talked to someone from Germany, someone from Ecuador, and heard many languages that we could not identify. There were lots of people, particularly for a midweek day, AFTER Labor Day.

What a great way to spend a birthday! And, although I wasn’t driving Fernando, it was a business trip because I got a few more photos for painting from.

In conclusion, “Will you still need me, will you still read me, when I’m sixty-four?”

Because I am now. (But not losing my hair—growing it, actually, to save in case I do lose it!)

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14 Comments

  1. Happy Birthday, a few days late! I am a year and a half ahead of you. Once you hit the 65 mark, every doctor appointment starts with “Have you fallen in the last year?” It’s a cause to pause. Thankfully, I can answer no. I always enjoy your comments on the Frugal Girl blog. You think long before you write. I appreciate that. Your photos are breathtaking!

    • Elaine N, thank you so much for visiting, for commenting, and for all your kind words. Isn’t Kristen just truly wonderful? I found her by just cruising the internet (searching “frugal” because that interests me), looking for blogs that were well written and engaging, in order to learn from them. I also appreciate your warning about turning 65.

      Come back any time!

  2. Happy Birthday, Jana! How fortunate we are to have such wonders in our big backyard to celebrate when we’re celebrating our birthdays, or celebrating just being alive with the opportunity to treasure and care for them.

    • Thank you, Laurie! It was a happy birthday, and your words are well-spoken.

  3. Only one more year to reach what some now consider true adulthood in this long-lived age, Jana. May it be a good one. 🙂

    • Wow, Louise, I am still “middle-aged”!

  4. Happy Birthday, dear Jana, Happy Birthday to you! ??

    • Thank you, Dave—such a lovely voice you have!

  5. Wait . . . wasn’t your B-day a week ago? Or do I have the date wrong?

    • Yeppers. If you read the text, you will see that I am speaking in past tense. Good memory, Sharon!

  6. No! Really? You don’t look a day over 63, young lady! (JK, Happiest of Days to you!)

    I tried the Moro Rock climb once. Got to the point where there is a sheer drop on both sides of the stairs, and said “NOPE!”

    A few years ago I stayed in Wuksachi Lodge and hiked to Crescent Meadow and Tharp’s Log. Very scenic and interesting. Did you know he used horseshoes as window hinges?

    I retired 4 years ago after 40 years of music ministry at my church. I try very hard not to say, “Hey, that’s not the way I did it! Why did you change it??”

    And yes, I’ll be happy to feed you . . . it’s a date for 2024!

    • Sharon, I saw those horseshoe hinges. The shutters have actually come unhinged. Wish it would be better preserved. . .

  7. Happy Birthday!

    • Thank you, Anne, it was! I hope it was a happy day for you too!

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