The Advance Party had chipped away at the Giant Forest the day I drove up. I arrived late Friday night, but still enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep in the lodge.
The next morning we were greeted to either a cold rain or warm snow. The snow from the previous day was slush. We loaded up the cars and headed to the museum area parking lot, where we put on our snowshoes, opened our umbrellas, and headed to the Rimrock Trail.
The trail was straightforward to follow until we hit the outlet of Circle Meadow. Normally a minor step-across stream, it was swollen with water from the warm rains and melting snow.
We couldn't find a crossing place acceptable to all the group, so we headed up to the Alta Trail, which we knew had a bridge.
From here, we headed towards Bears Bathtub, passing a slush-filled Circle Meadow along the way.
After passing the Bathtub, we headed back past the (unsigned, and then unknown) Franklin Tree and recently-burnt Washington Tree.
A large sequoia near the Washington tree provided some protection for us from the rain as we had lunch. After eating, we headed to the Lincoln Tree then back towards the swollen creek crossing on the Rimrock Trail.
After completing this trail segment, we headed down a maintenance road to the closed Pinewood picnic area. From there, we attempted to follow an old trail towards Round Meadow, eventually picking up an old, restored roadbed near what the map indicated was the "Puzzle Tree".
Only after we walked past a large downed tree did we consider that it, with its various interlocking log segments, was the "Puzzle Tree".
Nearby Round Meadow too was swollen with water from the day's warm rains.
By the time we returned to the cars we were quite wet and a bit chilled. We decided to head down to Three Rivers, but first stopped at a few places to see the swollen Kaweah River.
After our final stop at Potwisha, a ranger informed us that the road to the Giant Forest was closing due to rockfall. In fact there had been numerous small rockfalls the previous few days, so this wasn't surprising.
In our motel room in Three Rivers we hung our all our gear everywhere, including a makeshift clothes line, to dry everything out.
Unfortunately, the road was closed at the visitor center, which dashed our plans for the next day. Still, we were able to mark off a few TrailQuest segments, and still had a nice time hiking around the sequoias.
