The Giant Sequoia Tree - Nature's Largest Living Thing

If you have never seen one it is quite a site to behold. The Giant Sequoia tree is truly a marvel of nature. The tree can grow to a height of over 300 feet and some can have a diameter of over 30 feet at their base. Some Giant Sequoias are known to be over 3,200 years old making them among the oldest living organisms on the planet.

The trees have are only found in their natural environment in the western Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Experimental plantings have been started in places such as Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York and Vermont, but of course none of these trees even comes close to the size of the ones you will find in California.

I have had the privilege to see the Grizzly Giant in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park and it is incredible. The base measures 28 feet in diameter and the first branch on the tree is about 100 feet up and is 6 feet in diameter. Here are some pictures of Giant Sequoias below taken by various people and posted at Flickr.com. Enjoy them, but try to make a trip to California some day to see the real thing.

Recent Uploads tagged sequoia and tree

High - Higher - Highest

Ha-Tschi posted a photo:

The Sequoia trees that gave the Sequoia National Park in California its name are not just really big at the base but really tall as well. Only with this panorama of three photos (portrait mode) was it possible for me to get a whole tree on one picture.

Me & the Tree

Ha-Tschi posted a photo:

The trees that gave the Sequoia National Park in California its name are really huge. As it is usually hard to get the right dimension I decided to show you this photo. I think it shows just how "BIG" those Sequoia trees are.

Thanks to my husband for taking that photo!

This photo is the last photo of our amazing trip to the Southwest of the USA. Thanks for following me from one amazing place to the next and for your encouraging comments.
If you liked my style I can already tell you that the next bunch of photos is already waiting to be worked through and uploaded here as we spend some time in South Africa in December. I just say there are lions, elephants and all the other beautiful animals going to make their appearance here.

In a giants shadow

Ha-Tschi posted a photo:

The small tree on the right side of the tree is already as tall as I am - still it looks almost tiny next to that grown Sequoia tree in the Sequoia National Park in California.

Yosemite National Park

KELLYHART666 posted a photo:

Yosemite National Park

postcard - John Muir Lodge

Jassy-50 posted a photo:

Sequoias in Yosemite

CHlowlight posted a photo:

Sequoia National Park

CHlowlight posted a photo:

fallen monarch

sevenworlds16 posted a photo:

One of our Yosemite Day 2 activities was a hike through Mariposa Grove in the Wawona area of the park. The views on the drive to Wawona were extraordinary; probably the most beautiful thing I saw. The walk through the grove itself, containing sequoia trees, some of which were thousands of years old, was humbling and fascinating.

This is the root system of a tree called the Fallen Monarch. They estimate that it fell several hundred years ago.

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Yosemite National Park - California

Kuster & Wildhaber Photography posted a photo:

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Yosemite National Park ( /jo??s?m?ti?/ yoh-sem-it-ee) is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of 761,268 acres (3,080.74 km2) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.

Over 3.7 million people visit Yosemite each year: most spend their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness. Although not the first designated national park, Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of people like Galen Clark and John Muir.

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodland, lower montane, upper montane, subalpine, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat or documentation for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes. The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in formation of deep, narrow canyons. About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during the early glacial episode. The downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today.

[source: wikipedia]