The Trail of 100 Giants is interpretive trail located on the Western Divide Highway in the Sequoia National Forest.
According to a Forest Service website ,
Trail of 100 Giants is an easy, accessible walk through Long Meadow Grove, one of the premier groves of giant sequoias. The grove showcases monarchs estimated to be up to 1,500 years old. About 1.3 miles of paved trail offers several loop options with interpretive signs…This gentle trail (6% maximum grade) is paved and suitable for wheel chairs.
Trail of 100 Giants is part of the Sequoia National Monument. According to the previously mentioned website,
On April 15, 2000, President William J. Clinton proclaimed the establishment of the Giant Sequoia National Monument and made his announcement beneath one of the giant trees at the Trail of 100 Giants.
The grove contains approximately 125 giant sequoias greater than 10 feet in diameter and more than 700 giant sequoias less than 10 feet in diameter. The largest tree in the grove has a diameter of 20 feet and is 220 feet in height. The grove defined by the outermost giant sequoia trees covers 341 acres. It is estimated that the ages of larger giant sequoia trees in the grove are up to 1,500 years old.
Sometimes giant sequoias grow close to each other and fuse together, like the trees in this photo did.
I visited the Trail of 100 Giants during the summer of 2015. It is a magical, holy place. As the name of the trail implies, the visitor sees so many massive trees. I think it is difficult to comprehend the enormous scale of the trees from a photograph. Trust me, these trees are BIG, not just tall, but wide as well, with bark that is inches thick.
When I walked the trail, visitors were allowed to leave the path in order to get right up next to the trees, proving ample opportunities for tree hugging. (In the Sequoia National Park, the most famous trees–the General Sherman and the Sentinel Tree, for example–are fenced off to protect their root systems from the huge number of tourists.
Some of the trees on the Trail of 100 Giants have hollow trunks, allowing visitors to stand or sit inside the tree. It is absolutely magical to be able to exist within such an ancient living creature. One of my favorite trees is called the Goose Pen. A person can stand entirely within that tree and look up and see the sky through an opening in the trunk.
This is the view when standing in the Goose Pen tree and looking up.
Of the many places I’ve visited, the Trail of 100 Giants is one of my favorites. I highly recommend it as a destination for tree huggers and nature lovers.
I took this photo while standing in the hollow trunk of a giant sequoia. The dark frame around the edges of the photo are the walls of the trunk of the tree I was standing in.
I took all of the photos in this post.