Sequoia National Park

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)

A body was recovered in the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Park on Saturday near where search crews have been combing the rugged terrain for a missing hiker. The body was found about 1,000 feet above Monarch Lake, just below a portion of the Sawtooth Trail, according to National Park Service spokesman Matt Fagan. Authorities temporarily suspended the search for missing hiker Johnnie Jean Daniel pending identification of the body. Daniel, 65, of San Rafael, was reported missing Thursday by a family member after Daniel failed to return from a hike.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, which abut each other in the Sierra, are the first in the nation to resume a policy of letting some lightning fires burn themselves out, officials reported. A National Park Service policy of letting selected fires burn naturally was suspended last year after a decision to let wildfires go uncontrolled in Yellowstone National Park was criticized.

An Indiana man died this week after a fall in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, officials with the National Park Service said Friday. David Breuer, 47, had been visiting Kings Canyon National Park with his family. He left a trail Thursday to approach the top of Mist Falls, four trail miles from Road's End in Kings Canyon, and slipped and fell into the cascade, according to park officials. Other park visitors attempted to administer CPR, but Breuer could not be revived.

Ranger Kris Fister knelt beside a baby sequoia that had sprouted along Big Trees Trail, near a new museum here. "Look at this little one," she said. "With luck, this will grow to be another giant." Considering that a sequoia can shoot 300 feet high and weigh 14 1/2 tons, Fister's 6-inch seedling seemed far from giant size. Then again, given how much this part of Sequoia National Park has grown up, nothing would surprise me.

After a five-hour haul up to Sequoia National Park with a tent and cooler stuffed for a weekend camping sojourn in big-tree country, you wouldn't dream of pulling into Lodgepole campground at dusk without a reservation. More than 200 chock-a-block campsites occupy this unofficial Mission Control for car campers in one of the country's most popular parks.

We'd just taken aim on a slice of chocolate walnut pie a la mode when someone sounded the alarm: "BEAR!" My husband, John, and I dropped our spoons and bolted out of the Silver City restaurant, joining about a dozen other awe-struck spectators in the early summer twilight. Sure enough, there stood a young black bear--posing nonchalantly atop a nearby tree stump for a minute or two before ambling back into the tangle of white pines and incense-cedars behind him.

Save 50% on room rates at Sequoia National Park this fall. Beginning Oct. 1, room rates will drop to $99 a night at Wuksachi Lodge inside the park; from Oct. 31 to March 17, rates will fall to $79 a night. The low rates are for Sunday through Thursday lodging and are on a space-available basis. Sequoia National Park, east of Fresno, offers cross-country skiing, sledding and other sports during the winter.

A grove of giant sequoias has been added to Sequoia National Park, the Save the Redwoods League announced in San Francisco. A spokesman said the 430-acre grove was bought by the conservation organization last year for $2.2 million. Half the money came from a bequest by Pearson Henderson, a Santa Barbara real estate investor. In taking over the site in the Mineral King area southeast of Fresno, the National Park Service reimbursed half the league's purchase cost.

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)

Forty years ago a La Cañada Flintridge teen named Tim Taylor climbed a mountain more than 12,000 feet high and more than 20 miles deep in the backcountry of the southern Sierra. Taylor left behind a small legacy that was discovered last month, and now members of an Oakland family are trying to find him. In September, while on an 11-day trek with his son, grandson and others near Milestone Mountain in Sequoia National Park, Oakland resident Larry Wright, 69, stumbled upon a small metal canister nestled against a rock near a high peak.

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.

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.

Authorities have found the body of a 73-year-old man who disappeared during a hike up Mt. Whitney. The National Park Service said the body of Wade Brunette of Hansville, Wash., was found a little after noon Saturday on the eastern slope of the 14,494-foot mountain by a team of search dogs. Crews began searching for Brunette on Tuesday after he failed to return from a hike to the summit of 14,494-foot Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. Search efforts were complicated by extremely windy and cold conditions during the early part of the week.

A giant sequoia thought to be more than 2,900 years old has sprouted new shoots and branches in what park rangers are calling a landmark recovery for a tree predicted to die from rot and fire damage. The Washington tree, which measures more than 100 feet in circumference at its base, is touted as the world's second-largest living tree, eclipsed only by the neighboring Gen. Sherman tree.

After a five-hour haul up to Sequoia National Park with a tent and cooler stuffed for a weekend camping sojourn in big-tree country, you wouldn't dream of pulling into Lodgepole campground at dusk without a reservation. More than 200 chock-a-block campsites occupy this unofficial Mission Control for car campers in one of the country's most popular parks.

Ooh! Ahh! Dive! Dive! Is it a bus? Is it a boat? It's a duck! New York Splash Tours now offers amphibious tours of the Big Apple. Its new fleet of AquaBuses ferries visitors from Times Square through the streets of New York before driving into the Hudson River for a view of the famed Manhattan skyline. Enter the river through a short tunnel ride that simulates a stormy sea voyage. Join the captain for a one-hour tour. Adults $29, children 3 to 11 $20. Info: (877) 527-4691, www.coachusa.