Sequoias - Part III - General Sherman Tree

After going up and down all those steps at Moro Rock we took ourselves over to the Sequoia Museum for a quick look around.  It's really small but does have some interesting information about Sequoias if you're interested.  The Tweedles were more interested in gathering Sequoia cones.

Then we caught the next shuttle over to the General Sherman Tree. Bunny found a pretty flower and put it in one of her Sequoia cones which she showed me on the way over.  Bug stretched out in that GQ fashion that only he seems to be able to pull off, dirty knees and all.  I should have known from this shot that they were starting to wear down but I was just so excited to see the Sherman Tree!

According to Wikipedia "By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth.[1] The General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood),[2] nor is it the widest (both the largest cypress and largest baobab have a greater diameter), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Methuselah tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine).[3] With a height of 83.8 metres (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 metres (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of 2,300 – 2,700 years,[4][5][6] it is however among the tallest, widest and longest-lived of all trees on the planet."

So, not the tallest, widest or oldest tree, but DAMN!  You can't argue with 2,300-2,700 years of age or the largest tree by Volume.  What was the US doing 2,300 years ago?  I'm not sure it was more than Native American Tribes doing their thing.  If you're curious about what was going on in other parts of the world, click here and jump over to Wikipedia for more.


The General Sherman tree was pretty cool because the entire area had paved walk-ways to see all the trees.  It meant no woods hiking for our tired group, but it also meant we couldn't get up close and personal with most of the trees.  That was a bit disappointing but they did let us walk through these two trees.

As I walked between them I put my hand on the tree on the right, closed my eyes and said a little prayer for my family.  I figure if anything has been around this long, and is this tall and survived so much, that it probably has a connection with God more than anything else.  Sounds hokey, but it felt profound.


And then I moved myself and the family on to some typical touristy photo ops that I took full advantage of.

I even got one of Lone Wolf and her Boyfriend where he actually smiled!

Of course, it was pretty clear that my kids weren't feeling the magical epic-ness of this place quite as much as I was.  Or maybe they were just tired of me asking them to pose for photos.  Either way, they started to throw some attitude my way about half way through our visit.  It started out innocently enough with this photo.

Then Bug got into the action.

And Lone Wolf added to the mix.

Then it culminated in this bad attitude.

We hiked up the back trails to the top of the Sherman Tree park to catch the shuttle home. I think too little sleep combined with all that climbing was starting to wear on all of us.

I did get one really great shot of The Tweedles before we left though.  Man I love those kids.. attitude and all!