Day 24 - Calaveras Big Trees State Park

Continued from this vacation.

I'd seen the Californian coastal redwoods (Big Basin, Portola Valley) but I hadn't seen the giant sequoias (Which is another type of redwood). And Calaveras Big Trees State Park had two groves of giant sequoia. So off we went.

While the coastal redwoods are slim and tall, the giant sequoia are much wider, and shorter. Though this visit was full of some breathtaking sights, it was also filled with despair at the stupidity of human beings.

Take the Discovery Stump, for instance. In the 1850s, a hunter came across this huge, 1300-year-old-tree and because nobody in the cities believed him when he told them about it, he came back with workmen and cut the tree off in order to take a slice of it to display to them. And then they used the stump as a dance floor.

The Discovery Stump

Soaring into the skies - so mighty!

Just look at that rich, red, colour!

"The screaming mother" or some such  name. This is another tree that suffered from human greed. Humans removed its bark, in order to go and reassemble it at some exhibition, to show how tall and thick these trees are. This tree died.

A grove of young sequoia. Redwoods usually grow in groves and clusters.

The Pioneer Cabin Tree. I've been obsessed with this tree ever since I'd seen a picture in a book. Finally saw it. 4-5 months after this, this tree toppled over in a storm. I was just in time.

The top of the Pioneer Cabin Tree. This giant tree was surviving (until it fell down recently) thanks to that single photosynthesizing branch.