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Photos by David French
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Sequoia National Park is
a national park in the
southern Sierra Nevada,
east of Visalia, California
in the United States of
America. The park was
the third National Park
to be formed in the
USA, in 1890 (the first
being Yellowstone
National Park in Wy.,
the second being the
now-decommissioned
Mackinac National Park
in Michigan.). The park
spans 404,051 acres
(1,635 km²).
Encompassing a vertical
relief of nearly 13,000
feet (3,962.4 meters),
the park contains among
its natural resources the
highest point in the
contiguous 48 United
States,
Mount Whitney,
at 14,496 feet above sea
level. The park is
adjacent to Kings
Canyon National Park;
the two are administered
by the National Park
Service as one unit,
called Sequoia and
Kings Canyon National
Parks.

The vast majority of the
park is roadless
wilderness; in fact, to the
surprise of many visitors,
no road crosses the
Sierra Nevada within the
park's boundaries. This
leaves over 84% of the
park's area as
designated
wilderness[1], accessible
only by foot or by horse.

Sequoia's back country
offers a vast expanse of
high-alpine wonders.
Covering the
highest-elevation region
of the High Sierra. The
back country includes
Mount Whitney on the
eastern border of the
park, accessible from the
Giant Forest via the High
Sierra Trail. On a
traveler's path along this
35 mi/56 km back
country trail. One passes
through about 10
miles/16km of montane
forest before reaching
the back country resort
of Bearpaw Meadow,
just short of the Great
Western Divide.
Bearpaw Meadow
offers rustic tent cabins
and gourmet meals
cooked by a seasonal
resident park crew.
There is much to do in
Sequoia National Park
and the few sampling of
photos here does not
even scratch the surface.
If you get a chance, the
park is definitely worth a
visit.

Reference:
Wikipedia
(the free encyclopedia)
To the left you see a couple of the many
trees in the Giant Forest section of Sequoia
National Park. The Giant Forest contains
five out of ten of the largest trees in the
world. The Giant Sequoia is truly one of the
living wonders of this world. Reaching
heights of over 275 feet, and diameters of
over 27 feet, they are the largest living things
on earth. If you look carefully you can see
the figure of a person on the left side of the
photo that will give you a sense of scale and
size of these giants. The Sequoia's bark can
be up to 24 inches thick, and this makes
them very resistant to fire. They can also
reach ages of over 3,000 years old making
them one of the oldest living things.
These massive trees grow at elevations from
4,600-7,000 feet, and only in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains.


The photo to the right is a top view looking into
Sequoia National Park from
Trail Crest (13,714
Ft) located along the
Mt Whitney Trail.  As
mentioned in the text to the left, Sequoia National
Park encompassing a vertical relief of nearly
13,000 feet (3,962.4 meters). The view from
Trail Crest gives us a clear picture of this. The
park contains among its natural resources the
highest point in the contiguous 48 United States,
Mount Whitney, at 14,496 feet above sea level.
From Trail Crest, it is only another 2 or so miles
before the hiker/climber, reaches the summit of
this lofty peak.


Moro Rock is a granite dome in Sequoia
National Park, California, USA. It is located in
the center of the park, at the head of Moro
Creek, between Giant Forest and Crescent
Meadow. A stairway, built in the 1930s by the
Civilian Conservation Corps, is cut into and
poured onto the rock, so that visitors can hike to
the top. The view from the rock encompasses
much of the Park, including the Great Western
Divide. Use of this trail is discouraged during
thunderstorms. In the image to the left, you see
hikers descending the beautifully cut granite star
case.



To the right, you see the Giant Sequoia's soaring hundreds of feet
into the heavens. These largest of living giants grace the landscape
and offer beauty found nowhere else on earth. From forests to
museums, Sequoia National Park offers visitors a wealth of
information about these natural wonders. I remember on one of
my many visits to Sequoia National Park, gazing through the
canopy of these beautiful trees in the dead of night, and seeing the
multitudes of starts above. It was as near to an outdoor cathedral
as you could get. I was simply magnificent.


Lichens are formed by two organisms - a fungus and an alga. The
fungus provides the shape while the algae provides the process
that provides the food. The algal cells grow in a layer near the top
of the fungal structure. They photosynthesize - (or in other words,
they manufacture food) - for both the fungus and themselves. The
giant tree to the left provides a way for the above described
structure to spread out and gain sunlight over a great area. Far
more water is retained in a system that includes lichens than in a
similar system without them. Water is released slowly by the
soaked-up lichens rendering the ecosystem (forest in this case) to
remain humid for a long time after a rain has stopped.
Photo by Mike Koerner