The Traveling Widower

Tag: Murphy’s-CA

A Walk in the Woods (with really big trees)

This post is really different – I’m plagiarizing from one of my favorite humor authors (Bill Bryson) instead of from some rock song. If I think about it, I might find some lyrics which fit, but the book was a perfect match. Bryson’s book (A Walk in the Woods) was about his multi-year attempt to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, partnered with a very peculiar, clueless friend. I recall when I first read the book, I was flying somewhere, and laughing like a madman. Jan was quietly telling people seated around us that she did not know me. Robert Redford made a movie out of the book, which was probably his worst directing and acting effort. I was a big fan of most everything he did, but this one was awful. But that’s not what this post is about.

Now that I’m finally free from that miserable virus (woo hoo), I needed to get out of the house for a hike. I’m leaving for Colorado in a week, and I needed to get back in shape for the couple of outdoor activities I have planned. During my ‘Cave-A-Week’ mission this past summer, I had heard about a little known state park, Calaveras Big Trees, which has two groves of giant Sequoia trees, and had planned to visit when I traveled to Murphy’s for Mercer Caverns. That would have necessitated an overnight stay, which would have been fun (wineries, nice restaurants, great ice cream) but I did not feel like doing that for some reason, so I passed on the opportunity. But, the weather is still warm, the skies clear, and I’ve got nothing exciting planned this week. Today was the day.

I’ve now done this 2+ hour drive quite a few times, but have never gone past Murphy’s. The highway (Route 4) turns into a winding mountain road – fun to drive, and you go through Arnold, another cute (and small) town. Some nice looking restaurants and bars. Some other time. I love this area.

I had read (and heard) a lot of good things about the park – nice visitor center, really great docents and rangers and easy trails. They were all correct. The visitor center has a nice shop and a small museum, with a lot of interesting information on the history of the big trees and the wildlife – river otters, bears, occasional mountain lions, and lots of birds. Oh my. There are two main groves of the Sequoia trees – the Northern Grove starts at the visitor center so there was no sense in driving any further. I strapped on my Forest Gump anti-foot-flopping brace, and headed off on the trail. I brought the Sony A7 along, but only to play around with – this seemed like the pefect hike to try out my new Pixel phone.

This trail is well suited for just about anybody – even wheel chairs. And for that reason (maybe some others), the hikers were mostly old. My age. Maybe it was senior discount day or something like that. (I should have asked). No bicycles or dogs allowed. Nice. Just a lot of happy, friendly people.

So what do you see on a trail in the Big Trees State Park? I’ll give you a second. Give up? Big trees of course. Really BIG trees. The Sequoias are scattered throughout the primarily Redwood forest, and they really stand out. The trail meanders through the groves, with markers (27 of them) at each point of interest (you get a very detailed map of the trail, with descriptions for each of the markers). But most everything is pretty obvious – huge upright trees, huge fallen trees, some burned stumps. Right from the start, there is this enormous stump – shaved down like a dance floor. Part of the tree that stood there is next to it.

There are quite a few other downed giants – very strange looking. And one giant has a hollow center which you can walk (more like a crab walk) through it. No, it does not count as another cave.

But mostly what you see are the majestic giants.

All told, I probably walked about 2 miles or so. It was just a perfect day – not too warm, lots of shade. Does not get too much better than that except for some biting bugs. There is lots more to see in the park – there was a nice overlook trail which I hiked for a bit, but there were no old folks on it (dirt trail), and I’m sticking with the rule – NO SOLO HIKING. There is another grove of Sequoias (Southern Grove…clever) and more trails to the Stanislaus river, but I had enough. Besides, I had ice cream on my mind. Jo Ma’s, on Main Street in Murphy’s. A perfect end to a great day.

I really like that place. Yum.

This park is a good alternative to Sequoia National Park, if all you want to see are the big trees. Not as far from civilization (easy to get to) and you can see the trees without driving around.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calaveras_Big_Trees_State_Park

And then you are a short drive from Murphy’s, with lots of wineries and my favorite ice cream shop

September 23, 2025
The Last Cave: Mercer Caverns

Zoltar says “I see many stairs and great ice cream in your future”

Even though I am free from the medical anchor which has kept me more or less close to home this summer, I’m still working on the local bucket list, and all I had was one last cavern to visit – Mercer Caverns. This one is close to the last one I toured (Moaning Caverns), so I got to drive through Murphy’s again. I like that town. Mercer Caverns pretty much has the same history as all the others along the Sierra foothills – it was discovered by a gold miner (Walter Mercer in this case) in the late 1800’s, who noticed a breeze coming out of the ground, dug a hole and found the cavern. He explored it with a geologist, who told him it was all limestone, so forget about finding gold. But as with the other caverns, Mr. Mercer decided to turn his worthless mining claim (which he bought for $1) into a money making tourist attraction. He died young after a bad fall in the cave, but his family and future owners continued to explore and upgrade the tourist route through the years. And much like some of the other caverns, the tour follows a series of steep stairs and narrow passages which lead to small rooms, each with interesting features which the tour guide points out. Kind of sounds repetitive, because it is. So I’ll try to keep this post relatively short for a change.

I was by myself once again (sigh), so motored down to Murphy’s, arriving a few minutes after 11AM. This place does not take reservations – they are pretty casual about when the tours start, apparently based on when enough people show up. Today, they ran the tour at 11:30 as a few small groups showed up after I got there. I was planning to use the GoPro again to capture some video, and had the chest harness and camera setup, but was told that video cameras were not allowed. Huh? They mentioned that on their Website, but I assumed they were referring to the large cameras that serious videographers use, not a very small GoPro firmly attached to my body. Plus every phone and my, what they called a still camera, take high resolution videos. I asked why, and was told “that’s the rules”. No other explanation. Fine….I tossed the harness and camera back in the car. A very dumb rule.

So, I got to the head of the line, and after a quick intro by the tour guide, down we went. This was the actual entry point that Mercer hacked out – you can see the hole from the first anchor he used to rope down the hole, next to the plaque.

The stairs leading down were quite steep and narrow, and not as well lit as in some of the other caves, but with solid railings to hold on to. There were also a few tight spots where taller people have to duck to avoid smashing your head. There were four or five landings on the tour where we stopped and gathered to view some of the classic features you see most caves – stalactites and stalagmites, columns, various flow features. Each of these rooms were fairly small, but were well lit to highlite the features.

Very steep stairs

Cave bacon

Because the rooms and passages were so narrow, the owners placed plexiglass protectors along the cave walls in a number of places, to keep visitors from touching anything. That made it difficult for photography, but I managed to get some good shots, mostly with my phone. I hardly used the Sony camera swinging around my neck (I really need to buy a harness for that thing).

The very last stop had the one unique feature for this cavern – some incredibly delicate and beautiful aragonite crystals, which won a major award at the Paris Worlds Fair in 1900.

After we reached that landing we headed back up, stopping for the traditional candle and lights-out display, and then continued climbing back up the 17 stories of stairs to the top. Phew.

I’m totally caved out now – this was a nice tour – great tour guide, nice people in the shop (that’s where Zoltan resides). But after four other tours, the aragonite crystals were the only feature that stood out for me. And I was a bit annoyed with the slightly rude response I received by one of the staff about why I could not use the GoPro camera (“cause it’s the rules”). Whatever. It was an enjoyable outing.

The Website for Mercer Caverns has quite a bit of detail on the history and geology of the caverns.

http://mercercaverns.net/index.html

I hung around, waiting for my heart beat to climb down to normal after the climb out, and then headed home. But, I just had this absolutely desperate need for ice cream. Fortunately, there are two shops on Main Street in Murphy’s, which I had to drive through, so I picked one…it was a vry good choice.

Cherry Chocolate Chip & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Yum!

No more caves for a while. There are caves in other parts of the state – Lava tubes around Mt Lassen and Lava Beds National Park, and a few around Sequoia National Park. I may eventually get to those. The only one I’m interested in now is Mitchell Caverns, in the Mojave Desert.

July 17, 2025