Sequoia

In June, 1984 I read an article about a chateau in Quineville, France, by Jerry Payne and it touched my heart. He told of how in D-Day fighting in 1944 three GIs had been killed helping to retake the chateau; in the assault, an elm in the chateau courtyard was shattered, but the owner, Raymond Lemesle, restored to his property, left the stark tree as a memorial to the soldiers, and lay wildflowers at its base each day. Finally, the stricken tree...

Wuksachi Lodge, built in 1999, is the newest of the lodges in the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. As a winter vacation, we enjoyed hiking through Sequoia's Giant Forest and snowshoeing and cross-country skiing on local trails. We were impressed by the cleared and sanded paths after a snowstorm and the complimentary snow-chain installation. The choice and quality of the food in the restaurant were way above our expectations. Wuksachi Lodge, Sequoia National Park; (866) 807-3598, (559)

The presidential yacht Sequoia, saved by a trust from becoming a floating nightclub, underwent trials in the Elizabeth River today to check its seaworthiness after a $2-million stem-to-stern refurbishing. If the 104-foot yacht passes its sea trials, it will sail June 27 to New York to participate in the Fourth of July rededication of the Statue of Liberty.

A new management plan for the Giant Sequoia National Monument places greater limits on timber cutting in and near groves of the world's largest trees, but would still allow logging in nearly a quarter of the monument. The plan, released Tuesday by the U.S. Forest Service, is the agency's latest attempt at devising a blueprint for managing the 328,000-acre monument, which President Clinton created in 2000 to protect 34 groves of giant sequoias scattered on the slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada in the Sequoia National Forest.

In the race to build the fastest computer in the world, America is back on top. On Monday, a super-computer designed by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), took the first spot on the Top 500 list, a list that comes out twice a year ranking the 500 fastest computers on the planet.  It is the first time the U.S. has topped the list since November 2009.  The winning super-computer is called Sequoia, and it is housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.  Sequoia will be used to build complex models that let scientists test the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons without having to do nuclear testing in the real world.  So how fast is the fastest computer in the world?

A 13-year-old Simi Valley girl was in extremely critical condition Thursday after being hit by a car while walking across a street on her way to school, police said. Jennifer Joyce was struck at 8 a.m. by a car driven by Karen Smith, 39, of Lancaster, Simi Valley Police Lt. Don Austin said. The girl was in a crosswalk at Medina and Sequoia avenues when she was hit by the car traveling south on Sequoia, Austin said. Joyce was taken to Simi Valley Adventist Hospital with major head wounds and internal injuries, authorities said.

While criticizing Bearpaw camp in Sequoia ["Sierra Divide," Aug. 16], the Sierra Club continues to operate nearly a dozen camps, huts and lodges, all within national forest and wilderness settings. Guess they're upset because someone else is making the money. TRENT SANDERS La Canada Flintridge Sheer granite, river canyons, waterfalls and gorges bond those who hike those trails. This ethereal beauty is diminished when you round the trail to a porch full of "guests" kicking back with their cold Heinekens.

MANY years ago, we had a tent cabin ["Sierra Bliss, Without Roughing It," Weekend Escape, Sept. 24] at a different Sequoia camp. It was cold. A stove or something furnished heat. It also caught the roof on fire, just a slow smoldering, resulting in a 2-foot hole and new accommodations for us. MIKE KIRWAN Venice Send letters to Travel, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012; e-mail to travel@latimes.com. Letters will be edited.

The silver lining, almost literally, to this winter's drought is the stark high country images of rock and ice .  Catching photographers' interest:  frozen waterfalls and Alpine lakes that would normally be buried in Sierra snow . . . .  Also of note,  California's National Parks are accessible in ways they normally aren't this time of year. In Sequoia, for example, Crescent Meadow Road, which leads to Moro Rock, has temporarily reopened. Visitors can still hike the nearly 400 steps to the top of the granite dome to witness striking winter sunsets.

How can a budget hotel get even cheaper? When it's a kgbdeals  limited-time offer. An $89 voucher from kgbdeals gets you two nights at the Madera Valley Inn in the San Joaquin Valley - and a free bottle of wine.  The deal: The inn in at 317 N. G St. in Madera, Calif., is within an hour's drive of Yosemite in one direction and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks in the other. It's a no-frills budget hotel that's crazy cheap when you buy the voucher and redeem it within the required date.

Reservations for tent cabins along the High Sierra Trail in Sequoia National Park usually sell out in a few hours when the booking period opens in January. But this year spaces are still available in August and September for the six cabins at 7,800 feet because of a legal wrangle over the use of pack animals that delayed the camp's opening. Bearpaw High Sierra Camp , a park tradition for 80 years, is a treat for guests who hike in 11.5 miles and find beds, hot showers and home-cooked meals awaiting them amid a quiet Sierra meadow.

In the race to build the fastest computer in the world, America is back on top. On Monday, a super-computer designed by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), took the first spot on the Top 500 list, a list that comes out twice a year ranking the 500 fastest computers on the planet.  It is the first time the U.S. has topped the list since November 2009.  The winning super-computer is called Sequoia, and it is housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.  Sequoia will be used to build complex models that let scientists test the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons without having to do nuclear testing in the real world.  So how fast is the fastest computer in the world?

How can a budget hotel get even cheaper? When it's a kgbdeals  limited-time offer. An $89 voucher from kgbdeals gets you two nights at the Madera Valley Inn in the San Joaquin Valley - and a free bottle of wine.  The deal: The inn in at 317 N. G St. in Madera, Calif., is within an hour's drive of Yosemite in one direction and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks in the other. It's a no-frills budget hotel that's crazy cheap when you buy the voucher and redeem it within the required date.

The silver lining, almost literally, to this winter's drought is the stark high country images of rock and ice .  Catching photographers' interest:  frozen waterfalls and Alpine lakes that would normally be buried in Sierra snow . . . .  Also of note,  California's National Parks are accessible in ways they normally aren't this time of year. In Sequoia, for example, Crescent Meadow Road, which leads to Moro Rock, has temporarily reopened. Visitors can still hike the nearly 400 steps to the top of the granite dome to witness striking winter sunsets.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to build a boardwalk near the twin giant sequoias that toppled to the ground along a popular trail, an event that garnered national attention and a slew of suggestions about what to do with the ancient trees. The agency received more than 150 comments from the public, ranging from "cut them into firewood" to "leave them alone. " In a letter sent Friday to interested parties, the Forest Service said it believes the best solution is to construct an elevated boardwalk about five feet south of the prone twins, which are joined at the base and blocking a loop of the Trail of 100 Giants in the Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Along the Sierra Nevada's famed Trail of 100 Giants, the mammoth sequoia had stood sentry since King Arthur's knights gathered at the Round Table. It witnessed the arrival of the first European settlers and the flurry of miners in search of gold. The onset of the Medieval Warm Period and the passing of the Little Ice Age. It stood, unperturbed, through the Great War and the one that followed. Then a month ago, as a handful of amazed tourists looked on, it toppled — crushing a bridge over a small stream and blocking the path.

Summer may have ended, but the call of the great outdoors continues. Witness the crush of customers in West Los Angeles' Adventure 16 on a recent Sunday afternoon. We spent a few hours with sales associate Michelle Karlsen, 40, a 13-year veteran of the wilderness outfitting business and the store's accessories diva. 1:45 Karlsen approaches middle-aged man looking at dehydrated foods. "I'm a little leery of large pieces of meat," he volunteers.

It's a dry heat - a boulder-studded, wind-raked Mojave heat, in which rock stars lie low, artists think big, marines train, weird plants jut toward the sun like beseeching biblical figures, and climbers cling to granite walls like insects stuck to flypaper, except the climbers are way happier. That's a notable thing about Joshua Tree National Park and the towns around it. While legions of Californians keep their faces to the beach, no matter the season, a certain stripe of traveler is powerless to resist the desert, especially in cooler months.

The hard-packed snow atop Franklin Creek in Sequoia National Park appeared safe, but when Marcia Rasmussen, 51, walked across, it collapsed, plunging her into an icy tunnel with frigid water. For three hours, in freezing temperatures, she clawed at the frozen ceiling, her bare hands going numb and her body giving out before passersby found her. FOR THE RECORD An article in the June 21 LATExtra about hiker Marcia Rasmussen identified Ed Patrovsky as a longtime friend of Rasmussen.

Toyota Motor Corp. will recall about 22,000 vehicles because a tire-pressure monitoring system might fail to notify drivers of a flat or deflated tire. The recall affects Toyota Sequoia, FJ Cruiser, Land Cruiser, Tacoma and Tundra vehicles from the 2008 to 2011 model years. Toyota has issued recalls of more than 13 million vehicles since September 2009 in the U.S. alone, including the recall of more than 2 million vehicles to correct problems with floor mats and other issues that could cause unintended acceleration.