Sequoia National Park
I have stood among the Redwoods and they are huge. But Sequoias are so big that they do not seem real, even when you are standing next to them. They are awesome. And there are thousands of them.
Huge mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns, and the world’s largest trees exemplify the diversity of landscapes, life, and beauty in this National Park. The General Sherman Sequoia is the largest tree on Earth (by volume). It is 25 feet in diameter, 275 feet high, and 102 feet in circumference. It is over 52,00 cubic feet in trunk volume alone and weighs over 2,105 tons.
Some areas of the park are untouched by recent fires, others appear charred with many dead standing trees, while others sprout with new growth as the landscape recovers.
Fire and Sequoias
Giant sequoias occur naturally in only one place on Earth—the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, on moist, unglaciated ridges and valleys at an altitude of 5,000 to 8,000 ft. While not the world’s oldest trees, they are known to reach ages of up to 3,400 years. Tree ring studies of giant sequoias provide a long record of climate and fire history, helping park managers and scientists better understand relationships of climate, fire, and the giant sequoia life cycle.
