Sequoia NP - Big Trees Trail and the General Sherman

We had breakfast down at the visitors center at Lodgepole, then went to the Giant Forest Museum and walked the Big Trees Trail. These are massive trees and there is simply no way to describe how amazing they are. So, so beautiful. There are lots of different kinds of conifers, but the stars of the show are certainly the Sequoias.

Then we drove down to the General Sherman area and walked the downhill trail to that area (the uphill walk back got our hearts going even faster, the altitude already increased the pace somewhat - they kindly have benches spaced regularly along the path with reminders to take it easy).

The General Sherman (3rd from the bottom) is 275' tall and has more wood in it than any other tree in the world. You can't get it all in one picture. One of the branches on the Sherman is bigger than most mature trees of other species.

Mitch is showing the egg-sized female cone of the Sequoia (bears seed) and the much smaller male cone (holds sperm-containing pollen). Josie is showing the oat flake-looking seed, and Samantha is showing all 3 together, both cones and the seed.