Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park - Sequoia Trees

What kind of tree can live for over 3000 years, weight over million pounds? What is the difference between Redwood and Sequoia trees?

Sequoia is famous for big things--some of the largest trees in the world including the General Sherman tree and some of the highest mountains in the U.S., including Mt. Whitney, at 14,495 feet the highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states. The park also contains over 100 marble solution caves (such as Crystal Cave) and more than 2600 lakes and ponds.

I was shocked by these giant sequoia trees, while visiting Sequoia national park. They are so tall to fit a whole tree in a picture although i have a wide lens. They are so old to  calculate how many generations for human being to reach 1000 years.

If they are not protected by the national park, these thousand year old are already gone for now. What kind of mistake that will be?

Thanks John Muir, now I know there is such old giant  tree live in the real world, not in the movie.











Some facts about Sequoia and Redwood trees

Sequoia Facts: Height: to 311 feet, Age: to 3,200 years, Weight: to 2.7 million lbs, Bark: to 31 inches thick, Branches: to 8 feet diameter, Base: to 40 feet diameter.


Redwood Facts: Height: to 367.8 feet, Age: to 2,000 years, Weight: to 21.6 million lbs, Bark: to 12 inches thick, Branches: to 5 feet diameter, Base: to 22 feet diameter.

 

Park History 

 ( the following is quoted from http://www.shannontech.com/ParkVision/Sequoia/Sequoia.html )

 

 

 

The first white man to visit the giant trees may have been Hale Tharp in 1858 who eventually settled in the area and grazed cattle in meadows. Others followed, and extensive damage to the area was done by settlers who grazed sheep (called "hoofed locusts" by John Muir), miners, and lumbermen who cut down many of the largest sequoias. A number of people began to make an effort to preserve the great trees in the area, the most prominent of which were famous naturalist John Muir, who visited the area and championed the idea of great southern Sierra national park, and George W. Stewart, editor and publisher of the Visalia Delta newspaper. Muir, Stewart, and some members of the California Academy of Sciences put together a bill to save the area as a park in 1881, but the bill died in the Senate in 1882.

However, the preservation effort was ultimately successful and Sequoia became the nation's second national park when it was established on September 26, 1890, as a result of the same piece of legislation which created Yosemite and General Grant (now Kings Canyon) National Parks. It tripled in size one week after its founding, when the Giant Forest area was actually added to the park. In 1926 the park was again expanded toward the east to include the crest of the Sierra mountains, including Mount Whitney. The last section added was the Mineral King area in the southern portion of the park in 1978, culminating an effort to save the area from development as a ski resort.