Sequoia National Park

Giant sequoias, long viewed as majestic, impervious guardians of the high Sierra, are beginning to struggle with the multi-year stretches of drought, according to research conducted in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and elsewhere in the Sierra.

Such a pitiful throw. I watched my boot wobble above Mono Creek, then— in what seemed like real-life slow-mo—bounce against a rock and flip into the rushing current. Gone, gone, gone. Barefoot on the bank, I screamed, cursing my idiocy for tossing my boots instead of carrying them across in the wading shoes lent by my new friend, Doug Crispin. My life flashed before my eyes there on Mono Creek, days from anywhere. But then, someone was crashing through the creekside foliage.

A young couple planning to tour Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite national parks might have perished on their way to Kings Canyon in a crash off the steep and winding Highway 180.

Because you never really know what's around the next bend of a national park trail, it's always good to keep your wits about you, as these hikers did when they encountered a mountain lion in Sequoia National Park.