Sequoia National Park

Posted by Stella on Tuesday May 10, 2011 Under Travels

May 5th, we drove into Sequoia National Park. I really liked this park because of all the awesome trees… But I didn’t know about the Giant Sequoias on the first day. Well, I saw one Giant Sequoia that was only about 30 feet around the bottom, plus a giant stump, but that’s all we saw before we made it to our campground. But before the campground…

I was surprised when we came to a sudden stop. Dad told us to get our shoes on and hop out, so I did. I was the first one out (again) and I walked along the the sidewalk until I spotted the giant stump Dad had told us about. I walked over to it and stood by it, waiting for the rest of my family to come. Finally they came out and we got ready for a picture. Dad said, “Who can touch the top?” None of us could. It was at least 10 feet tall, maybe higher. I tried to kinda climb up it a little, but of course that didn’t work. It was just a giant stump with no branches and nothing to grab hold onto except the woodpecker holes. But we walked around back and there were way more woodpecker holes, bigger ones too. Greta tried to climb up and made it, so I decided I could make it, too. I did. When I stood up on top and walked to the end so I could see the family on the other side, Dad asked, “Could you camp up there? I mean, with a tent and everything?” I answered, “Oh, yeah, definitely.” And Greta agreed. It really was huge up there, but we didn’t have a camera up there to take a picture, and we were too high up to have Jean or Dad hand us one.

The Big Stump

The campground we stayed at was a pretty nice one, at least I thought, but it didn’t have showers, water, electricity, or any other hook-ups. We left early in the morning, and headed towards the Visitor Center. We made it to the Visitor Center and I was the first one out of the– (AGAIN!!!)–RV. I went down the street to the building and went inside. There was a cool museum in there. The parents didn’t give us enough time in there, but I guess I got a good enough look.

Later, we headed off to the Grant’s Grove Trail. I liked the Grant’s Trail. It was really cool ’cause of all the HUGE trees, and I do mean huge when I say it.

That's Jean and Ellie at the bottom of those giant trees.

There was this one tree that was 107 feet around the base. Now do you think I mean HUGE??! I know I was actually there, so even right now, when I’m writing about it, it’s easy to picture, but try to picture a tree that huge… Here’s a picture to help you out.

The giant sequoia behind us is called General Grant, and it is the second largest living creature in the world.

In Grant’s Grove, there were also two FALLEN Giant Sequoia trees, and they were definitely my favorite things on the trail. They were at least 250 feet long, and were hollow inside so you could walk all the way through them. It was awesome!!! There was one flat on the ground, and the other was laying on tilted ground, so if you wanted to go through it, you had to climb up-hill the whole way. When we went in that one, we climbed all the way up to the other end. When everyone else made it up, Ellie, Greta, and Ana threw pinecones down. It was really funny to see how far they would make it. And they had fun doing it too.

Inside a giant sequoia

Everything at Sequoia National Park was fun. You should go there someday too!

3 Responses to “Sequoia National Park”

  1. GMB Says:

    I can’t imagine how tall those trees are. Someday I would like to see them in person.

  2. GrandDaddyAndy Says:

    Did they tell you how old the biggest trees are? Is the tree you could drive thru still alive?

  3. Stella Says:

    Hi Dindy! I am not exactly sure how old the oldest sequoias are, but right now I am reading a book that was set in Sequoia National Park in the 1880’s when they were cutting the trees for lumber. The main character counted the rings of one, and there were about 3500. Dad says General Grant is estimated to be about 1700 years old, and the park literature says the Giant Sequoias can live more than 3000 years. They don’t die of old age, but eventually fall over. Dad also says the Giant Sequoia you could drive through was in Yosemite, and it fell over a few years ago. Now the only trees you can drive through are redwoods in one place in northern California.

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