Veronika, Cody, Fergus and Carter with a big tree

Yosemite is also home to two important groves of giant sequoia trees, which are the largest living things on the planet. They are not quite as tall as the related giant redwood trees, but given their enormous trunk width (in the picture above, the diameter of the tree is over 85 feet/27 metres) they contain more volume. They are also amongst the oldest living things on earth - the specimen above is estimated to be some 2,700 years old. They certainly give a sense of persepective.

Even the cones of the sequoia are outsized

Today, heavy logging in the past (a single giant sequoia tree provides more plank boards than a whole acre of pine trees) means that the giant sequoia is only to be found on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California in a number of isolated groves. Some scientists believe that there was once a huge sequoia forest stretching across much of the western coast of North America, while others believe that they have always been limited in geographic extent.. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is immediately apparent why the legendary naturalist and pioneering environmentalist John Muir, the Scottish founder of the American national parks system, was so taken by them.

Fergus and Veronika underneath the tunnel tree, dead for 300 years

We visited Tuolomne ("twa-low-may") Grove, one of the largest remaining areas of giant sequoia left. In recent years, scientists have revised their understanding of the sequoia - in the past, all fires were immediately (or at least as soon as humanly possible) extinguished in the belief that this would protect the old big trees. In fact, the sequoia is so well adapted to the natural forest fires which occur in a climate as dry as northern California that this "no fires" policy was actually damaging the forests - the deadwood on the forest floor was building up to such an extent that the seeds were mostly unable to germinate as they couldn't reach the soil, and those which could were starved of light in the crucial early stages. As a result, forest rangers now actually deliberately set controlled fires to help the sequoias.

Veronika *inside* a fallen sequoia tree

After visiting the big trees, we just had time to drive up to Glacier Point for a picnic lunch. A long and winding road leads up to a viewpoint with an unrivalled view of much of the Yosemite Valley. No picture can really do it justice (you'll either just have to believe me, or visit it yourself to see), but I'm going to try anyway:

Veronika at Glacier Point, with Half Dome on the left and waterfalls on the right

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