Giant Forest- Home of General Sherman

As sunset was fast approaching we hurried on to Giant Forest to see the largest living tree on Earth. It was a hike down 215 ft in elevation. Easy down not so easy up. We arrived at the upper view point and of course our youngest had to use the restroom. Grandma, grateful for the excuse to not have to go further took him back while the rest of us hiked down to its base. The General Sherman tree is the largest tree in the world and is over 2200 years old. Its largest branch is 7 ft in diameter. It's trunk weighs and estimated 1385 tons and is 275 ft tall. Every year it grows enough wood to make a 60 ft tree of normal proportions. It is a very fast growing tree, thought to be growing in ideal conditions for sequoias. It is in the middle of a large grove of huge trees (hence the name Giant Forest). From the map: "Pioneering Conservationist John Muir explored and named Giant Forest. 'When I entered this sublime wilderness the day was nearly done' he observed, 'the trees with rosey, glowing countenances seemed to be hushed and thoughtful, as if waiting in conscious religious dependence on the sun, and one naturally walked softly and awestricken amoung them.'" We were definitely awestricken.

As the sun was setting we hurried to drive under Tunnel l0g, a tree that had fallen and was carved out underneath. It was too dark to get a good picture of it. On our way there though we say a bear with two cubs. Although they were to far away for a flash and it was too dark for pictures I tried anyways. If you look closely you can see the momma bear. For the last few days being careful of bears was a big deal. Our campground at Yosemite had food lockers to put food, toothpaste deodorant etc in so that the bears wouldn't try to break into your car. They had that here also. And yet we hadn't seen one. The kids were so excited to finally see one and I was glad we were in the safety of our car.