[ 02.2015 | Sequoia National Park ]
my stay in California in 2015 was filled with many attractions I hadn’t had time for in 2013. and so I went to Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the national parks with huge snow-covered mountains, deep canyons, and some of the world’s largest trees. located in the southern Sierra Nevada, the two national parks span 3.504km². the rough wilderness – approx. 97% of the parks – deeply impressed me. and having met the wolf in the morning, I actually felt a bit like little red riding hood strolling through the thicket.
established in 1890, Sequoia National Park was the first national park created to protect a living organism: saving the giant sequoia trees from logging. the most prominent being General Sherman, the largest known living single stem tree on Earth by volume (1,487m³). the General (height: 83.8m, diameter at base: 11.1m, estimated age: 2,300-2,700years) grows in the Giant Forest – containing five of the ten largest (currently living) trees in the world. as the sequoiadendron giganteum grows so old, the trees have experienced a lot and are great contemporary witnesses…
time to grow. today is ‘International Youth Day’. I remember the German author Erich Kästner who once proclaimed: “Only those who grow up and still remain children are real human beings.”
source: nps.gov | un.org | quoteaddicts.com