Yosemite's Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is something that you absolutely must see on any trip to Yosemite National Park.  It is conveniently located close to south entrance of the Park and the Wawona Hotel and it houses over 200 Giant Sequoias with a trunk diameter of over 10 feet or more, making this the largest of the three groves of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park.

There is a easy-to-walk 2 mile trail filled with interpretative signs that will make your visit here fun and educational.  A guidebook written by Jon Kinney, a Park Ranger here for 40 years, is available for purchase at the beginning of the trail.

Let's follow the trail and visit some of these majestic trees. 

The walk is absolutely stunning with Giant Sequioas and other beautiful trees lining the pathway.

This oak tree with its fall colors made a nice backdrop to a photo.

The first big attraction is the Fallen Monarch.

This is the same tree from a famous 1899 photograph with at least fifteen U.S. Cavalry officers sitting on their horses on top of this fallen trunk. Tannic acid in the wood prevents fungi and bacteria from decaying the tree.  It will only rot after all the tannic acid has been leached from the tree through hundreds and hundreds of years of rain and snow.  This tree may have been lying like this for more than three hundred years already.

It's hard to get an appreciation of how very large a Giant Sequoia is when it is standing in the forest.  When it's on the ground and you can walk the length of this huge tree, you really feel its mass. 

Giant Sequoias are the largest living things when measured by total volume.  Their close relative, the Coastal Redwoods, are taller growing up to 368 feet.  A Giant Sequoia, such as these found in Yosemite, top out at 310 feet tall.  A Mexican tree, the Montezuma Cypress, can grow a wider trunk reaching a diameter of up to 50 feet.  A widest trunk on a Giant Sequioa is 40 feet in diameter.  However, when the total volume is calculated, nothing on earth is larger than the biggest Sequoia.

Interpretative signs explain the autonomy of this tree very well.

The strangest thing is that a tree this size has no tap root.  Instead these giants support themselves on a series of shallow roots that spread out to up to 150 feet in diameter.

The Park has taken measures to keep the over one million visitors per year to this grove from damaging the root system.  When I first started visiting Sequoia tree back in 1993, people were able to walk right up to the base of any tree and climb on the trees. 

Another interesting fact is that the Sequioa wood is extremely brittle and almost useless as a commercial lumber.

The fact that the early lumber industry in the Sierra Nevadas found these trees not profitable coupled with Abraham Lincoln's act of setting aside the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley as a protected state trust "for the pleasuring of the people", have saved these prehistoric trees for our viewing today.  Yellowstone became the first designated National Park in 1872, but the idea of setting land aside for future generations was born right here at the Mariposa Grove.

This charming set of four Sequoias is named the Bachelor and the Three Graces.

Look at how the Graces each put their best foot forward.

This trail explains how fire-ecology works to germinate new Sequiois.  This was not understood by the Park Service until the mid-1960s.

For 100 years all fires were suppressed in this area allowing so much undergrowth of small evergreens to grow creating a lot of fuel for a massive fire that could burn the crowns of these trees and kill them.

In addition, to germinate Sequoia seeds need direct sunlight, adequate moisture and bare mineral soil.  That's where fire ecology comes in to open the forest for light and to burn all the leaf and needle litter covering the forest floor so that soil is exposed.

Woodland animals, such as this acorn woodpecker, also help germinate new Sequoias by loosening the pine cones from the trees.  A pine cone can stay on a Sequoia for 30 years until either a fire dries it out and causes it to fall, or an animal dislodges it.

In nearby Sequoia National Park, the National Park Service was getting ready to do a prescribed burn.  Once the forest returns to its natural state, the NPS may stop the prescribed burns and let the forest set its natural fire cycle of lightening fires.

The main attraction of the Mariposa Grove is the Grizzly Giant.  This is one of the largest trees in the Mariposa Grove and it is the oldest known living Sequoias at 2,700 years old.  This tree leans off at a funny angle: 17 degrees off of what would be straight.

The biggest branch is bigger than any non-Sequoia tree in this grove, with a diameter of 7 feet.

The legend behind the name Grizzly Giant is that in 1852, a Mr. Dowd came upon these trees while hunting and when he told all his campmates about the giant trees, they thought he was just making up stories.  He finally told them that he needed help bringing down a giant bear carcus and they all saw the trees and confirmed his sighting.

The trunk shows a deep scar from fire-damage, yet this tree lives on: a seedling back in 700 B.C.

This California Tunnel Tree, cut in 1895, has tunnel to pass through.  Back when the Park was in its infancy, in 1881, there was a famous Wawona Tunnel Tree that was cut for stagecoaches to drive through.  That tree collapsed under a heavy snowpack in the winter of 1969, dying perhaps a 1,000 years prematurely.

It's neat to be able to see a Sequoia from all angles, but not worth the damage done to this majestic relic from the past.

If you are staying in Yosemite Valley, you can take advantage of one of the green trams, fondly known as the green dragon, to tour the Mariposa Grove.

If you are short on time, or not able to do a 2 mile walk in this high-elevation, you can still drive to the Mariposa Grove and see some wonderful Sequoias right in the parking lot.

Thank you so much for spending time with me on this trip through the Mariposa Grove.  I hope that you all get the opportunity to come in and enjoy this natural wonder.

Resource:

1. Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia, Jon Kinney (NPS Ranger from 1946-1986), found at http://www.yosemite.ca/us/mariposa_grove_of_giant_sequias