- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
- Sep 14, 2024, 9:02 AM
- ☁️ 23 °C
- Altitude: 119 m
- United StatesCaliforniaTulare CountyExeter36°17’48” N 119°8’27” W
The Giants - Sequoia Trees, CA
September 14 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
The Giants of the forest – Sequoia🌲 - the tree that inspired a Nation
Before hitting the road again, we made several unforgettable stops at Sequoia National Park to stand beneath the ancient Sequoia trees. Trees that soar high into the sky and live for millennia. Imagine a living organism that stretches horizontally almost a third longer than a football field. Now imagine hoisting it into a vertical position so it rises more than 30 stories into the sky. That's the way to envision the sheer immensity of the mighty Redwood trees that are protected in several National Parks in California we visited such as Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and the Henry Cowell Redwood Grove State Park.
We strolled along the iconic Giant Forest, home to legends such as General Grant. These trees, though often confused with cedars, belong to their own unique family and can be over 2,000 years old—older than most nations! They grow only in a narrow "Sequoia Belt," thriving between elevations of 1,520m and 2,290m. Below that, it’s too dry, and above, it’s too cold.
John Muir, the famous naturalist, named the Giant Forest in 1875, calling it the best of all Sequoia groves. He wasn’t wrong—four out of the five largest Sequoias in the world are found within these three square miles.
The U.S. is home to two of the three known species of the green Goliaths. The redwoods in the grove preserved in eastern California's Sierra Nevada range are known to scientists as Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant sequoia), and they are giganteum indeed. But they aren't even the tallest trees in the National Park system, they can't measure up to the Sequoia sempervirens, costal redwoods that flourish in the perpentully damp environment of the temperate rain forest along California's northern Pacific coast. That's where you can find the loftiest/ tallest known tree in the U.S. - and the world - a Coastal redwood, called Hyperion, which is preserved whihin Redwood N.P. which stands at 380 feet (116 m), it's 95 feet taller than the Yosemite's tallest Sequoia, the Columbia - while the largest living tree, "The General Sherman", in the Giant Forest, in Sequoia N.P., with a trunk circumference of about 31 meters (102 feet). The Sequoias hold the record for the widest trunks. The General Sherman in Sequoia N.P. is 2'300 to 2'700 years old.
Not without good reason, John Steinbeck once called the redwoods "ambassadors from another time", they can live for thousands of years.
The longest living trees on earth though are the Great Basin bristlecone pines, Pinus longaeva, found in Inyo National forest amid the White Mountains of the eastern Sierras, which are estimated more than 4'800 years old. Isn't that unbelievable? Those trees experienced so much of history and environmental change. If they could talk I sometimes wished...at least we can read their stories, it is written in their trunk.
Standing among these ancient trees was like entering a natural cathedral. The colossal trunks, which resembled elephant legs, seemed to cradle entire ecosystems in their canopies. In Sequoia National Park, the trees felt like living relics of a prehistoric world, their branches high above us like something from a surreal illustration in The Little Prince. The giants were mesmerizing just couldn't get enough of them - they got me, I was hypothesized.
Despite their size, the Sequoias are delicate in some ways. Their thick bark, which can feel almost papery, helps protect them from frequent fires—an essential part of their lifecycle. Fires clear the forest floor, allowing new Sequoias to grow. As John Muir wisely observed, "Everything in nature called destruction must be creation. A change from beauty to beauty."
It’s astounding how these trees endure, surviving for millennia despite fires and other challenges. Moro Rock, standing at 2,050 meters, marks the southern rim of the plateau. Climbing it to watch the sunset was a fitting end to our day of “forest bathing” among the giants. After a long, dusty adventure, the next challenge awaiting us wasn’t in the wilds—but laundry! Our last night in the chilly San Joaquin Forest was frosty, but we fueled up the next morning with hash browns, eggs, and bacon, ready to head toward the coast for some warmth.
Thanks John!Read more
Traveler Cool