Surprised by the Giants

Sequoia National Park was a long drive, and we arrived at night, climbing through hairpin turns in the Sierra Nevada in the deepening darkness.  It was cold in the mountains.  The air conditioner went off, the windows opened, and then closed to keep out the chill.  The moon shone brightly. 

And then, in the window beside the road, the first of the giant Sequoia’s came into view.  Massive.  Orders of magnitude more massive than any other old growth tree.  And as we drove, more and more of them looming out of the darkness in the headlights. 

Why did these trees grow so much larger than others?  A fortuitous climate must surely play a role.  Gigantic size is an advantage in the rough western forests.  The Sequoia are relatively hard to kill with fire – and many of them had scars to attest to their capacity to survive.  Massive and very tall trees have an inherent advantage in fire.  The fire resistant bark protects the tree from blazes on the ground, and its height provides some protection against the efforts of flame to leap into the canopy.  Eternal age also provides the advantage that the very old trees can set seeds for thousands of years, potentially increasing their chances of reproduction.  Yet such age has its drawbacks.  The Sequoia tends not to evolve quickly, which may diminish its ability to respond to threats to which it is not already well adapted.

The campground was in the higher woods above the sequoia grove.  Old growth Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir and (perhaps?) Lodgepole Pine provide massive though not sequoia-scale shade.  One tent that night, as the many bear warnings had Patricia concerned about separation from our cubs.  A tent set up by flashlight, children carried to it from the van.

In the morning David asked to go on a walk by the river / creek that ran past the camp ground.  Climbing boulders by small water-falls and riffles.  I joined him, and together we climbed up the trail for a while.  The forest was beautiful, and the trees were old.  But it was sick.  Quite a few of the old firs and pine were dead and others were dying.  Climate change? Bark Beetles?  Drought?

The Sequoia themselves seemed healthier.  Enormous trees.  So much larger than any others that they made old growth pines and firs seem small.  Tall.  Grand.  Wide.  Able to absorb gigantic wounds from forest fires and continue growing.  Able to last for thousands of years.

The walk through the Sequoia was complicated by the need to get the children to a Ranger talk, so I dropped them off, and the walked with Miriam with the backpack down the half mile trail from the main parking lot.  The General Sherman Tree was very very impressive (as billed).  Miriam stopped fussing on the way down.  After we took our pictures we set out on the Congress trail, a two mile loop through the Sequoia grove.