Giant Sequoia
Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are the world's largest trees; and largest living thing by volume. The trees grow to an average height of 50–85 meters and 6–8 meters in diameter. Record trees have been measured at 94.8 meters in height.
They are also among the oldest living things on Earth. The oldest known Giant Sequoia based on ring count is 3,500 years old. Sequoia bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 90 cm thick at the base of the columnar trunk. It provides significant fire and insect protection for the trees.
Here are two examples to show the large size of the tree ... both are at the same location and date.
Location: Crescent Meadow Road, Sequoia National Park, California, USA
near Giant Forest Museum
Date: 2018 May
1) Tunnel Log
Visitors to Sequoia National Park can drive through a fallen "Tunnel Log" located along Crescent Meadow Road near Giant Forest Museum of the park.
The fallen log came into being after a Giant Sequoia fell across the road as a result of natural causes on December 4, 1937. The following summer, a tunnel was cut through the log as a visitor attraction.
When it fell, the tree stood at 83.8 meters feet high and 6.4 meters in diameter at the base. Its age when it fell has not been determined, but probably exceeded 2,000 years.
The tunnel, which remains in use today, is 5.2 meters wide by 2.4 meters high.
In the 3 pics below, I am driving a hired Toyota Camry through the log.
2) Auto Log
The Auto Log was once another Giant Sequoia. It fell down in 1917. Because it landed right next to Crescent Meadow Road in Sequoia National Park, park authorities decided to turn it into a visitor attraction. A kind of parking space was gouged along the upturned side of the tree trunk, and visitors were encouraged to drive their cars off the road and onto the trunk as a way to convey the size of the big Giant Sequoia.
Nearly a century of rot, and countless thousands of cars, have been too much even for a Giant Sequoia, and the battered trunk is now off-limits to vehicles. But visitors can still walk the length of the former log roadway.
Base diameter: 6.4 meters (21 feet)
Etti is starring in the 2 pics below ...
... Whilst I climbed to the top of the tree root.
More on the Giant Sequoia
In volume of total wood, the Giant Sequoia is Earth's largest living tree. Its nearly conical trunk, which remains thick high into the branches, is the reason.
- At least one tree species lives longer.
- One has a greater diameter.
- Three grow taller.
But none is larger.
In all the world, sequoias grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA, usually between 5,000 feet and 7,000 feet of elevation. There are about 75 groves in all.
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