Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

 Sequoia National Park

Sequoia NP, like Descanso Gardens in LA, was the perfect place for Dave. As an arborist, he appreciated much about the park that the average person might not. And I will not use the word HUGE in describing these trees, as it is hugely overused.

1. Giant sequoia trees grow in a very specific habitat.

The Sequoia trees are MONSTERS! ENORMOUS! But they only grow between about 5,000 - 7,000 ft. elevation, on the western rise of the Sierra Nevada mountains. As we hiked to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree by volume in the world, we attained an elevation breaking point. If we looked above us on the trail there were no sequoia trees, but if we looked down the hillside, there were sequoia trees everywhere. I found it fascinating that we were entering such a vertically narrow natural environment.

Seeing our first sequoia, we had to get a picture.

Looking up!

The Twins. (The trees, not Dave and me.)
The woman who took this picture took a vertical panorama with my iPhone.

General Sherman Tree.
This tree is almost 300 ft. tall.
It would take up 3 lanes of highway at the base.

2. Wildfire can be devastating and/or life-giving.  The sequoia trees survived many California wildfires; the latest one to hit the area was in 2021. Many of the saplings were killed, and scorch marks scar the bases and way up the trunks of the larger trees. However, the tight cone needs the heat of the fire to open. Once a fire has left an area barren, the cone seeds, which are the size of a pinhead, have little vegetative competition and the fire's ash acts as fertilizer. In the picture below you can see evidence of a fire's damage.

I'm holding my hiking stick up and to my right.
It vanishes in the tree's size.

Sequoia cone. Not too big for having a colossal parent.

Evidence of the KNP Complex fire in 2021.
Entire slopes of mountains on both sides of the valley were covered with burned trees.

3. The root system is shallow, compared to the height of the tree. Sequoias' roots only go down about 6-12 feet, but can extend outward for several hundred feet. When a tree topples, the roots break off close to the base of the tree, making a loud snapping or popping sound. It is amazing that these giant trees do not have a taproot to help anchor them. In the picture below you can see how close to the tree the roots have snapped off. 

Roots break close to the tree trunk.

4. The sheer size of the trees, given the altitude, was surprising. Have you noticed that the higher in elevation you go, the colder and windier it is? However, higher elevations also receive more precipitation than lowlands. (Think snow.) Considering that snow is all around the trees, it's no wonder that the roots grow outward, seeking the water. 

Much of the snow in the mountains had melted by the time we arrived in April.
But there was still enough to cause some road and trail closures.

 

5. The bark is relatively smooth. Although it appears rough, with many vertical sections, the feel of the bark is mostly smooth. And the red color is phenomenal!

The bark was actually smooth.

6. Of great interest is Sequoia NP's Giant Forest Museum. I learned that the area of the park named the Giant Forest contains half of the earth's largest and longest living trees. There are more than 8,000 sequoias here. 

Some of the trails we wanted to hike were closed due to deep snow, or damage from the winter's snow melt. Road repair also closed a few portions of the park. But overall, it was a phenomenal day.

Dave got stopped by a red light for road work.
Unexpected in the wilderness of SNP.

 

Kings Canyon National Park

Day 2 of our time in the Sierra Nevada mountains was spent just north of Sequoia National Park at Kings Canyon NP.  A highlight of this park is the General Grant tree, second in size only to the General Sherman tree in Sequoia NP, although the base is larger.

President Calvin Coolidge designated the General Grant
as the Nation's Christmas Tree in 1926.
Notice the snow at the base.

One side of the General Grant tree is scarred by fire. Dave remarked that the heartwood at the bottom of the tree had been destroyed, and the area would never heal, causing the top of the tree to be adversely affected. Eventually it will die. 

Fire scar on General Grant.

I was not able to capture a good picture of this magnificent tree, so I will borrow one from the Internet.

 There were other sequoia trees in the General Grant Grove. This shot contains 4 large trees, with many smaller trees around it. 

Notice the fire scar on the tree in the center of the photo.

 

In addition to the General Grant Grove, we hiked an area called Big Stump. This area had been logged in the early 1900's, and all that remains of the trees are stumps. Crosscut saws up to 12 feet long were used to cut down these giants.

Dave is my ace in the hole.

Another stump in Big Stump.

How old was this tree when it was cut down?

Final words about Kings Canyon: The road with the best view of the canyon, Kings Canyon Scenic By-way, was "seasonally closed." But there was an overlook on a different road in which we were looking across the canyon. 

Looking across Kings Canyon in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

 

I found a good photo on the National Park Service website to share, but I was sorry we missed this.

The view that got away.

Overall, our time in these two National Parks was amazing, awe-inspiring, humbling, and yes, HUGE!

Next stop: Yosemite National Park. Can't wait to see Half Dome and El Capitan in person!

Psalm 1 Blessed is the one...whose delight is in the law of the Lord... That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit (cones) in season...