World’s biggest tree, California
Travel to the General Sherman in the Sequoia National Park, USA.
Feb 20, 2007
California is home to some very, very big trees. The biggest of them all, though can be found in the Great Forest of the Sequoia National Park. This is just south of the Kings Canyon National Park and South-West of the Death Valley National Park. The nearest town of any size is Fresno and it is a roughly equal distance from San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
As the name of the park suggests, the General Sherman is a giant sequoia, and even by those standards it is absolutely huge. It is over 80 metres high, and its circumference at the base of the trunk is an astonishing 30 metres.
And it’s that massive trunk that enables it to claim the highly sought after title of the biggest tree in the world. Other trees may be taller, have bigger branches or a wider-spread canopy, but it’s the volume of the trunk that counts. Rumours that other trees have been caught crying and spreading nasty habits about Sherman being bitchy and promiscuous remain unconfirmed.
It is also widely accepted to be the biggest living organism on earth, although scientists and biologists are quite happy to tear each others’ eyes out on that particular subject. The tree itself is over 2,000 years old and is wise enough to stay out of those particular scraps.
Unsurprisingly, the General Sherman has become a major tourist attraction, and many visitors will happily drive for a couple of hours, take a photograph of it and then disappear. This is blatantly silly, and not just because the best part of a day has been wasted taking a photo. The National Park is beautiful, and even if you just take a wander round in the Great Forest (it’s only five square miles big), you’ll get to revel in one of Momma Nature’s greatest achievements.
The Forest is also home to the Giant Forest museum, which gives excellent background information on the trees, such as their history, their environment and what they have for dinner. Clue: it’s not pizza and chips.
California excels itself in record breaking trees. The state also hosts the oldest trees in the world, tucked away in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, and the world’s tallest trees, the coastal Redwoods in the Redwood National Park.
