Sequoia National Park

August 5, 2004

We had been telling Ashleigh and Jordan that the trees would be bigger than any they had ever seen. Still, they have to be seen to be believed, and wide eyed amazement was the anticipated reaction.

Ashleigh pops out one of the holes in this huge hollow tree. Ashleigh and Jordan and a number of other children around had great fun running into and out of the holes in this tree. This huge sequoia is hollow inside, and guessing Jordan's height to be about 3 1/2 feet, the diameter scales to 16 or 17 feet at head height on Jordan in the view above. It had a half dozen access holes to the hollow, so the kids zipped in and out of all the holes with delighted squeals.

Now this is a tree! Jeff and family are dwarfed by a trunk that scales to 16 feet at Ashleigh's head height. You could easily claim 20 feet diameter by including the flare at the roots, so the base of this tree would fill a standard two-car carport, which is typically 20x20 feet.

Brenda walks among the awesome giants, and crawls inside one with Ashleigh and Jordan.

Brenda and the pickup give you some perspective of the size of the trees.

Darla, Ashleigh and Jordan climb to the V of a big twin tree. Ashleigh gives perspective about the size of the whole tree below.

Ashleigh at left shows the size of the tree that they are perched in above.