Another Walk in the Park: Redwood and Sequoia National Parks

In California there are monuments to really big trees--coastal redwoods and their cousins the giant sequoias that grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Redwoods are taller at over 350 feet. Sequoias are more massive. Think of the comparison between a guard in basketball and a guard in football. Both are big, just in different ways. The challenge for the photographer is to find a way to squeeze an entire tree into the picture.

Redwoods once grew along 500 miles of the Pacific coast but, because each tree contained so much high-quality lumber, they are were being felled at a spectacular rate. A tree that spent 1,000 years growing could be gone in minutes. So, in 1968 a 58,000 acre sanctuary for the trees was set aside as Redwood National Park in the far northwestern corner of California. They are also preserved in an adjacent state park named for fur trader and scout Jedediah Smith who brought pioneers to the area in 1828. The national and state parks can be accessed via Rt. 101 that hugs a coastline that is as spectacular as the trees.
From the coast, we headed east to Yosemite and then south to Sequoia National Park, home of the world's most massive trees. Even their branches are bigger than most other entire trees. The General Sherman Tree, for example, has a branch that is seven feet in diameter. Sequoias would be virtually immortal as well because they are protected from insects and fungi by chemicals in the bark and wood. Many have the scars of wildfires but 30-inch thick bark protects them. A shallow root system with no tap root is the main cause of death--toppling over in heavy winds. Then there is, or was, the matter of logging. But that ceased with the creation of the national park in 1890. US Cavalry protected the park during the early years.

Redwood National Park