Sequoia and Kings Canyon: A Land of Giants

01This week on our National Parks journey, we visit a land of giants, high up in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

02Here you will find the largest living things on Earth, as well as the tallest mountain in the continental United States.

03You will also find the deepest canyon in America.

04Welcome to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.

05The park gets its name from the area's ancient sequoia trees.

06They are among the oldest trees on the planet.

07Millions of years ago, different kinds of sequoias grew in many different places.

08Only two kinds exist today, the redwood and the giant sequoia.

09Both are found in California.

10Redwoods are taller, but the trunks of giant sequoias are much bigger.

11Sequoia National Park's forests are thick with giant sequoias.

12Many of the trees are several thousand years old.

13The largest is called General Sherman.

14It is named after a U.S.

15general in the Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman.

16The tree is 31 meters around.

17It stands almost 84 meters tall.

18And it continues to grow.

19It sits within the park's giant forest.

20The forest is home to over 8,000 sequoia trees.

21General Sherman is more than 2,200 years old.

22It is the world's largest tree in terms of the amount of wood it contains.

23The National Park Service says if the tree were cut down, it would provide a huge amount of wood construction planks.

24It says if they were laid end to end, they would stretch for almost 200 kilometers.

25In the late 1800s, people grew concerned about logging activity in the area.

26They sought to protect the giant sequoias from being cut down for wood.

27It says if they were laid end to end, one of those people was Walter Fry.

28In 1888, he came to the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a logger himself.

29He spent five days with a team of loggers, trying to take down a single giant sequoia tree.

30Fry then decided to count the tree's rings to learn its age.

31The answer shocked and saddened him.

32The tree they had cut down was more than 3,200 years old.

33He and his team of loggers had ended thousands of years of growth.

34The experience led Fry to change jobs.

35He became a naturalist.

36He studied the trees and measured the size of fallen sequoias.

37He also joined the fight to protect them from future loggers.

38When a petition was created to urge Congress to create a national park in the area, Fry was the third person to sign it.

39Sequoia National Park was established on September 25, 1890.

40It became the country's second national park after Yellowstone.

41In 1940, Congress established another park near Sequoia, King's Canyon.

42It and Sequoia National Park have been managed together since 1943.

43King's Canyon is home to the deepest canyon in the United States, as well as a famous sequoia forest called Grant Grove.

44Here, you will find the world's second biggest tree, the General Grant Tree.

45It is over 3,000 years old.

46Along with the world's biggest trees, the area is also home to one of America's highest peaks, Mount Whitney.

47It measures 4,414 meters.

48It lies in the eastern part of Sequoia National Park.

49While many visitors travel here to witness the giant sequoias, some visitors also come here to climb Mount Whitney.

50The climbing trail itself begins at an elevation of over 2,400 meters, already very high for some people.

51Many hikers experience altitude sickness while trying to reach the top.

52More than 30,000 people try to climb Mount Whitney each year.

53Only about 10,000 reach the top.

54Of course, the park offers less extreme hikes as well.

55One of the most popular is the Moro Rock Trail.

56Moro Rock itself rises more than 2,000 meters.

57But hikers only need to climb the final 90 meters to reach the top.

58From there, they are rewarded with stunning views, the towering Sierra Nevada mountains, and kilometers of giant sequoia forests.

59Climbers also get a view of the 90-kilometer-long Kauai River, which runs through a deep canyon.

60Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park is home to a richly diverse animal world.

61More than 300 species of wildlife live in the park.

62Mammals include the tiny white-footed mouse, the gray fox, and the bobcat.

63Black bears are also common.

64Bird species include the California quail, the northern owl, and the acorn woodpecker.

65There are also many animals that swim, slither, hop, or crawl.

66Visitors might see a northern Pacific tree frog, a western pond turtle, or the colorful rainbow trout.

67If you are lucky, you will not run into one of the park's poisonous wild rattlesnakes.

68But do not let bears and snakes scare you away.

69Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park is too extraordinary to miss.

70The words of the late naturalist, John Muir, perfectly describe a visit to this great park.

71Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

72I'm Katie Weaver.

73And I'm Ashley Thompson.

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