Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

5/12/05 An orange tree in a grove on the back roads between Fresno and Sequoia National Park. Fruit littered the ground everywhere.



5/12/05 Pictographs at Hospital Rock in Sequioa National Park. The native people who made them lived in the area until about 100 years ago, then suddenly disappeared.



5/12/05 Headquarters for Sequoia National Park. The tree outside is one of your 'average' mature sequoias. It is 270 feet tall, as I recall. After about 800 years, sequoias reach their full height but continue putting on girth for the next 2000 or so years. And yes, that is snow on the ground.



5/12/05 This sequoia fell over without warning on a quiet, windless day. It 'died' prematurely... if my memory serves me right it was just 1500 years old, and the average lifespan of sequioas is usually a thousand years more. Even so, this one was quite huge, as the car parked nearby illustrates.



5/12/05 Sequoias are huge, beautiful trees. Supposedly, they are the largest living organisms (by volume) on the surface of the planet. The largest sequoia is tree is 275 feet tall with a circumference at the base of 103 feet. Its diameter of 38.5 feet is wide enough to block 3 lanes of traffic on a freeway. They are so proportionate in their width to height ratio that they deceive the eye with regards to their massiveness unless there is something nearby to visually contrast them with, like the cars in the parking lot.


"Look at that, now. Why, it looks as if these giants of God's great army had just now marched into their stations; every one placed just right, just right! What landscape gardening! What a scheme of things! And to think that God should plan to bring us feckless creatures here at the right moment, and then flash such glories at us! Man, we are not worthy of such honour!" - John Muir