Even Bigger trees. Sequoia National Park.

Groveland, California

We can all now fairly confidently identify a few different types of giant trees including Cedars, Redwoods, and Sequoias, as well as some other less spectacular ones. We aren't experts, but we are definitely more aware than we were when we started thinking about a trip to the California national parks. We have climbed and walked through and over these trees and even squeezed in the space between three intertwined sequoias and looked up at the sky revealed way up high among the branches. We can tell you that a sequoia forest smells amazing (and a little like Lowes), and that in a redwood forest you will sometimes come unexpectedly upon spectacular maple trees draped with moss.


We spent two days last week exploring Sequoia and King's Canyon national parks as well as Sequoia national monument and national forest (another thing we are learning, the differences between National parks, forests and monuments... not all that much to someone who is visiting them really, except maybe that the parks are more visited and have better roads). On our first day we climbed to the top of Moro Rock, Saw the General Sherman tree and then the lesser visited General Grant tree and finally a big stump on Big Stump Trail which was probably not THE big stump for which the trail is named, but we were tired and on our way out of the park for the day so as soon as we saw A big stump, we took some pictures and headed back to our car. General Sherman is, of course the biggest tree in the world and so you sort of have to go see it, but everyone else feels the same way and so its a pretty popular trail. Grant's grove and tree however are in the less visited King's Canyon park (adjacent to and ran as one park with Sequoia) and the walk here was really much nicer and the trees still plenty as impressive as in Sherman's grove. I am sure this is an fine opportunity to make some sort of joke about the two generals for which the trees are named... but I've got nothing.

Definitely a big stump even if it wasn't the big stump

Walking towards the roots of a fallen tree

What I really liked best as far as seeing Sequoia trees was when we went the next day into the National Forest instead and walked through the Trail of 100 Giants. This trail was much less crowded and probably because of that, the trees were less protected from us people and we could actually get up close with them. In the national park, especially near the Sherman tree, the trees are all fenced in to protect them. Here we walked through a tunnel that was the hollow center of a fallen tree, climbed right up on the top of a more recently fallen tree and took a walk all along it from top to upturned roots. It gives you a real good perspective of just how huge these trees are when you are looking down a good 20 feet to the forest floor from atop a fallen tree trunk hoping you don't fall and die. And this was also where we climbed into the open to the sky 'cave' formed in the center of three intertwined trees. We finished our day in the national forest with a harrowing drive up to Balch Park, which frankly wasn't really worth it, but we did walk around a pond and watch frogs leaping in from the shore which was entertaining but maybe not actually worth the death defying ride to get to them.