Kings Canyon National Park -- Grant Grove
July 25, 2010
Grant Grove features a beautiful interpretive trail with lots of information about Giant Sequoias.
You could walk through the Fallen Monarch.
A view from the inside out.
There were examples of fire damage to trees.
I had been feeling like a pretty unsuccessful birder on the trip so far, because I hadn’t seen any of the particularly interesting birds I had hoped to find. But someone pointed out to me this cute White-Headed Woodpecker, so at least I got to see one.
The highlight of Grant Grove is the General Grant Tree, purportedly the world’s third-largest living thing.
General Grant’s base diameter is about a meter wider than General Sherman’s, but as General Grant’s trunk tapers at a lower height, General Sherman turns out to have greater volume.
The interpretive booklet for the trail, produced by the Sequoia National History Association, says: “The General Grant Tree is as tall as a 27-story building. It is wider at the base than a three-lane freeway. It weighs more than 700 large cars. If the wood were strong enough for construction, more than 40 average sized, 5-room houses could be built from it. A relatively young tree for a huge sequoia, the Grant Tree has lived for nearly twenty centuries.”
Several of the trees were named for states. This beauty is the California Tree.
This feature, apparently left behind by a fire, reminds me of a tongue.
On to Kings Canyon, the most incredible part of the trip.
