Sequoia National Park

All lmy life I’ve wanted to walk amongst the giants at Sequoia National Park. And the park is so much more than the trees. A bounty of beauty indeed with the biggest trees in the world. The air is thin at 7,000 feet and it is much colder that we expected. Many people were wrapped in blankets on the Sherman Tree Trail. We moved fast and hydrated often. I highly recommend many layers when visiting.

The park suffered from the wildfires of 2021 and it was heartbreaking to see the destruction.

“The 2021 fire season included two large wildfires (both started by the same lightning storm in early September) that burned into a large number of giant sequoia groves. This species has a limited distribution, covering just ~28,000 acres in ~70 groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Given the impacts of the 2020 Castle Fire to sequoia groves, where losses were estimated at 10-14% of the entire Sierra Nevada population of sequoia trees over 4 feet in diameter, there is significant concern by sequoia managers and the public regarding the impacts of these new fires.”