The Giant Sequoias -- No better place to practice "social distancing" than in a national forest, right?  And trees don't get much more magnificent than Giant Sequoias (Sequoia Giganteum).  So, you see it was imperative that we visit them!  The tree that Jim is standing beside is 18 feet in diameter, 62 feet in circumference -- a scale that is unimaginable until one stands at the base.  This small grove of approximately 100 trees is located on the western side of the southern Sierras, near Porterville, California, which is one of the areas that has seen millions of trees killed by the drought-encouraged pine bark beetle. The Sequoia trees have not been hit nearly as hard as the Ponderosas and other pines, but they have been infected and many have died well before their 500-year expected lifespan.  This sad fact has been a surprise to biologists, and a shame for us ...

But getting out into nature is a good antidote for The Virus.  
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Fascinating facts about the Giant Sequoia:
  • This "big tree," as John Muir called it, is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron.
  •  Sequoias are the largest tree by mass, but Coast Redwoods are taller.
  • They have the thickest bark of any known tree.  The outer layer at the base can be 2 feet thick, with tannins that allow for them to withstand fire and disease admirably.
  • Their seeds are tiny -- 91,000 to the pound, 300,000 seeds per tree each year!  And fire is their friend, opening and releasing the seeds.
  • The oldest tree may be 3200 years of age!
  • On January 8, 2017, the Pioneer Cabin Tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park (which tourists had been able to drive through since the late 1800's when the owner carved out the hole) fell to the ground and splintered apart on impact, which was not unexpected as it had been leaning for years and weakened by the carving.
  • Today some of the oldest sequoias growing outside their natural range are housed in British castle gardens and arboretums. They can be spotted in other European countries as well: In France, the trees were once planted along entire streets.​



... and what is a trip to the southern Sierra without a "stop" on the east side of the impressive range?  We took the opportunity to travel across Sherman Pass and camp at The Alabama Hills, a magical place in the shadow of Mount Whitney, California's highest peak at 14,505'   With weather in the mid-80's -- about 29 degrees Celsius -- (an anomaly in summer), this place is simply awe-inspiring.  

Sherman Pass is important as well, because in all of the years that I have known Jim -- 40 and counting -- I can count only a handful of times that we have traveled a California road that he has not traveled before.  This was one of those times! --- Beth