Posts Tagged With: General Sherman Sequoia tree

Tuesday morning sunrise

Tuesday morning sunrise over lake at lodge

We got up early Tuesday morning to finally take sunrise photos. I think these two present very nicely.

Tuesday was a day of trees. We drove down a piece and visited the area with numerous large sequoias. The sequoia tree does not grow as tall as the redwoods, but grows thicker. Thus, this grove of sequoias has some of the largest trees in the world, as measured by total volume. They are tall too, frequently over 250 feet.

On our way in Monday, we passed without knowing it, an area where the trees might have been even larger today but they were cut down in the late 1800s-which led to the creation of this park. (Kings Canyon was formed to prevent flooding of the King River-you will see that in Wednesday’s blog.) The trees cut down in the 1800s were not even financially profitable, they shattered when hitting the ground and transportation costs were very high.

Ed and General Sherman

Chris and the Twin Sequoias

Once again, a picture is hard to present perspective but we have tried with the shots here. The climb to the General Sherman-the largest living tree in the world-is steep. The General Sherman is 52,500 cubic feet of tree. Its circumference at ground level is 102.6 feet.

After the Sherman, we went on a hike in the forest. On this Congress trail, there are trees named after the House and Senate. As we headed to our next stop, we came upon the road construction where they only let cars go by at 25 minutes after the hour and 50 minutes after the hour. (I found this out by asking a construction person, the details are not listed anywhere, just expect delays.)

Chris in the Senate

We had our bag lunch and then headed out for another walk along a meadow with numerous sequoias. There was one family there of parents, two kids and grandparents. The grandparents took a picture of the family dwarfed by the tree.

sky and trees

in the forest

Once again we noted the large percentage of international visitors. They certainly are helping the economy. Dinner at the lodge is at tables of ten, we have been able to find some Americans to talk to you (not all of the international visitors speak English). We met people from Houston and central California so far.

We went to bed early. No Internet to work on, no TV in the room,TV in the lodge is on American Idol or some such.

Ed and Chris, Wednesday the 15th for Tuesday the 14th.
4 pm