A Road Trip Up Highway 4 To Ebbet’s Pass National Scenic Byway - Part One: Calaveras Big Trees State Park

The trip up Highway 4 started the same way that almost all of my semi-local trips do: Late, and practically mid-morning. Despite my best efforts, and regardless of how early I actually wake up, I never seem capable of getting myself ready, my car packed, my dog ready, and my wife up and ready before the sun is high in the sky and the rest of the world is also starting to get up. Needless to say, we departed around 9:30 am, when the Saturday morning traffic was still relatively light, but not as wonderfully barren as it probably was three hours earlier.

We quickly headed out of Sacramento and down the Jackson Highway (Hwy 16), before cutting over onto Highway 49, and passing through the small town of Jackson, and the even smaller town of San Andreas. Eventually, we met up with Highway 4 right outside of Angel’s Camp. If that name sounds familiar, its because the town is well-known for its annual Jumping Frog Jubilee (Blame Mark Twain for that one…seriously, go google it, it is all his fault that jumping frogs are famous).

State route 4 actually begins in the bay area, and winds itself through hills and flat farm land before moving eastward and into the Sierra. By the time it has reached Calaveras County, where we picked it up, the trees have grown thick, and the altitude has risen significantly.

It’s not always wise to snap a photo of a Sequoia tree with the sun directly overhead.

Up the highway, and about twenty minutes out from Angel’s camp, was our first stop: Calaveras Big Trees State Park. This is a grove of very tall, and very old Sequoia trees that have been surrounded by hiking trails, public bathrooms, and a gift shop. I’ve been to the park twice now, but have never ventured inside that gift shop. If there was any justice in the universe (there’s not), it is my hope that they would sell T-shirts there that had slogans on them like “I got big wood at Calaveras Big Trees.” But alas, good taste usually prevails on state property, and I’m pretty sure all of the souvenirs are appropriately bland and harmless.

During the late spring, the trees are not the only attraction that Calaveras Big Trees has to offer.

The Sequoia forest is utterly stunning, with its trees towering hundreds of feet into the air. Their tough orange tinted trunks contrast brightly against their high green canopy. They are massive but still, and they bring a sense of calmness and serenity to land around them.

My first visit to this area was during the fall, when the sky was cloudy, and the dimming afternoon light gave off an atmosphere of gloom and sadness. On this current trip, however, the sun was shining and everything was warm and bright. It was also late enough in the spring season that wild flowers dotted around the forest floor, and crawled along the length of the hiking trails that circle the area in a big loop before leading people back to the visitor’s center (and back to that wonderful gift shop that probably doesn’t sell T-shirts with dirty tree-related slogans printed on them).

By the time I started my hike around the park, it was noon, and there already was a sizeable crowd of people milling around and enjoying the nature. Actually if I’m being honest, most were milling around while being loud, talking to all their friends, looking at their cell phones, or otherwise acting rather obnoxious. Hoping to avoid them, or at least get away from them for as long as I possibly could, I took the overlook path that skirts the edge of the forest.

It was on this trail that I snapped the majority of my macro photographs. This was a fruitful endeavor because, in addition to the flower blooms, the bugs of the park were also out in force. So I took the opportunity and put my equipment to use. I spent quite a long time squatting down on the trail, fiddling with my macro lens, and trying desperately to get my flash to work (despite reading the instructors and watching how-to videos, that thing is still being evil to me).

Despite my promise to keep this blog “family friendly,” I never said I wouldn’t occasionally post hot bug on bug action. Nature, after all, is very good at doing two things: Getting busy reproducing, and getting busy dying. Sometimes in combination.

Once I had finished wandering around and annoying the insect life by getting way too close with my camera lens, I started to wander around and annoy the tourists by sticking my phone straight in front of myself, and recording lengthy nature videos. The purpose of this, of course, was to have enough content that I could cut it apart and post it to my social media throughout the week. But really, in the moment, I just looked like some big idiot waving his phone at trees. Regardless, I spent the rest of my visit walking among the giants, and recording them for all of the internet to see. (If you’re curious, go check out this week’s reels on my Instagram account).

Towering old trees and wooden walkways, oh my…

The park was unchanged from my previous visit, but everything felt fresh and new. And although Big Trees was not the main target for this particular trip (My focus was on Ebbett’s, which we will visit in the next update), I was happy to be in the trees again. The warm sunshine caressed my skin, and I felt at peace as I dodged the growing crowd, and mingled with nature.

But as the afternoon light begin to shift, I returned back to the visitor center, and once again skipped going to the gift shop. My dog was not allowed in the main section of the park, so my wife had gone on her own little hike with him, up a fire road in the opposite direction from where I was. It had been a brief venture for the two of them, and when I got back to my car, they were both hanging out in the front seat and having a makeshift lunch (ProTip: It is always much cheaper to throw some food into a cooler and bring it with you, than it is to try to find something to eat while on the road).

I broke down all my gear, shoved it back into my backpack, made and ate my own version of lunch, and then returned back to the highway. I pointed my car east, and we started our journey down the rest of Hwy 4, and towards Ebbett’s Pass.

In the next update, I will detail the rest of our road trip. There are more flowers ahead, towering mountains, snow-covered peaks, a lot of bikers for some reason, and a very brief return to the Pacific Crest Trail. So if you are inclined, dear reader, please check back in a day or two for the rest of this harrowing (is that an appropriate word here) tale.