Sequoia

Sequoia National Park - August 6, 2003

To your left is the General Sherman Tree. I am actually surprised I managed to get all of it in the picture. It is the largest single living organism on earth. And, no, I am not making this up.

Sequoia National Park is home to, surprise, a large number of sequoia trees. It neighbor, Kings Canyon National Park, also has quite a few of these trees - my campsite at the Azalea campground in Kings Canyon has two - but Kings Canyon is known for its canyon and Sequoia is known for its trees.

Sequoias are very large trees, both in height and girth. Not quite as tall as Redwoods but, what they lack in height as compared to the Redwoods, they more than amply make up for in the trunk area. Which is why Sequoias are, tree for tree, "bigger" than the average Redwood. (I plan on visiting Redwoods National and State Park in 2004.)

Enough about that.

Sequoias tend to be top-heavy. That is, and I don't remember why as I write this, their branches towards the ground tend to fall off of the trunk. Eventually, all of their branches are at the top of the tree. There were some fallen branches that were taller and bigger around than me laying about the forest floor.

The roots of the trees are not deeply imbeded into the soil. As the soil erodes, this causes the tree to become unstable. Sequoias "die" when the tree falls over. Therefore, they can live for a very long time. I think some trees in the Park are about 2000 years old. I cannot even fathom being alive that long.

Sequoias do survive fire well. Unless the fire damage is so extensive as to weaken the tree and cause it to fall over. Fire can burn out a lot of the inside of the trunk, leaving just the outer shell, and the tree will still stand and still be alive.

So, I spent about 5 hours over at Sequoia National Park. I visited General Sherman (in case you forgot, that is him over on the left), took the Congress walk (which has various trees named after branches of the federal government), took a walk around Round Meadow (very flat and paved path so the walk was very easy), climbed Moro Rock (all 400 steps of it), drove thru the tunnel tree (below) and just basically looked at the trees.

However, and this is not a slight against the Park or Sequoia trees but, after a while, one sequoia tree started looking like the next. They are beautiful trees, however.

A note about Moro Rock. Yes, it is about 400 steps to the top and the same 400 steps (and I do mean steps as in staircase) back down. From the top of this huge rock you get an excellent view of some Sierra Nevada peaks in the distance. You cannot, however, see Mount Whitney. Mount Whitney is towards the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains and can be accessed from the portal located near Lone Pine.

Tunnel Tree