The Giant Mighty Sequoia Tree
The giant mighty sequoia tree is one of the largest living things on this entire planet, and some of the oldest sequoia trees are thousands of years old. One of the locations that you'll find these giant sequoia trees living is in three different groves inside of Yosemite National Park. They are found in the Tuolumne Grove, Merced Grove, and the Mariposa Grove which contains about 500 mature giant sequoias. All of the photographs in this particular hub were taken by me at the latter two groves at Yosemite National Park.
The Mariposa Grove was named after Mariposa County in California, where it's located. One of the more famous Sequoia trees in the Mariposa grove is the Giant Sequoia named the Grizzly Giant. This particular sequoia tree is the oldest tree in the grove, and it's somewhere in age between 1900 and 2400 years old. It was once thought to be even older that, however with modern technology it was whittled down to be somewhere in between these years in age. The Grizzly Giant is a whopping 210 feet tall, and has a volume of 34,010 cubic feet. It's also the 25th largest tree in all of the world. Another famous tree in the Mariposa grove is the Wawona Tree that was later renamed the "Fallen Tunnel Tree" after it fell over during a snowstorm in 1960s. People cut a tunnel through the Wawona Tree back in the 1800's so that horse drawn carriages could drive on through it. Unfortunately this big man made opening eventually weakened the Wawona sequoia tree so much that it caused it to fall on down to the ground below. This is probably where the question came from - If a sequoia tree falls in the forest, and there's nobody around does it make a sound?
Eleven other famous sequoia trees that are found in the Mariposa grove are the Fallen Monarch, which is a tree that fell over more than three hundred years ago. The Bachelor and Three Graces are a group of four sequoia trees that are growing very close together. Their roots are so intertwined around one another that if one of these giant sequoia trees were to fall, it would take the other sequoia trees with it. The Washington tree is the largest tree in the Mariposa grove. The California Tunnel tree which is the only living tree in Mariposa grove with a tunnel running through it since it's counterpart the Wawona Tunnel Tree fell over back in the 1960s. The Faithful Couple is two sequoia trees that grew so close together that their trunks have fused together at the base. The Clothespin tree is where brush fires burned it's trunk causing it to look like a clothespin. The Telescope tree has become completely hollow after being repeatedly attacked by brush fires, and at anytime could possibly fall down. The Columbia tree is the tallest tree in the Mariposa grove towering up into the sky at 285 feet. The Galen Clark tree is believed to be the first tree seen by Galen Clark when he entered the Mariposa grove. This is the one sequoia tree which inspired his love for the giant sequoias. The Fallen Giant was one of the largest trees in the Mariposa grove, until it fell in 1873. The Massachusetts tree which fell in 1927 was another one of the most famous trees in the Mariposa grove. Even after these giant sequoia trees fall down, and hit the ground they still last forever. I learned on a tour from a park ranger that one of those fallen giants in the Mariposa grove was photographed a long time ago with a unit of United States Carvery soldiers posing on top of it, and still looks exactly the same today as it did back in that day. Today however you're no longer allowed by the U.S. park service to climb on top of any of these trees to be photographed or for any other reasons. I wonder if they would let you get on top of one of these giant sequoia trees if you were trying to get away from an angry bear or even a mad Sasquatch that was chasing you for your Slim Jim smoked jerky sticks. Just some food for thought.
The mighty giant Sequoia trees had once covered an estimated 2,100,000 acres in the United States. Sadly though beginning back in the 1850s commercial logging cut down somewhere around 95% of the original old growth sequoia trees. In 1864 before his death Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress which protected the mighty giant sequoia trees in California's Yosemite Valley. This later lead to the establishment of what we know today as Yosemite National Park, that turned 125 years old on January 22nd 2015. This is only some of the story about sequoia trees that stretches well beyond thousands of years, and for once in a blue moon not TheHoleStory.
Note - I just wanted to say that I took every single one of these 75 pictures in Yosemite National Park myself, and that I give permission to anyone who would like to use any of these photos in anyway that they wish.
