King's Canyon

General Grant Tree - Reported to be the third largest known giant sequoia tree.  There is one place you can stand and frame the entire tree with a regular camera.  For a look at relative size compare the trunk base of the Gen Grant Tree to the people in the foreground. The tree has the greatest base diameter at 40.3 feet. The tree is as tall as a 27 story building.  It is wider at the base than a three lane freeway.  A relatively young tree it has lived for nearly 20centuries.  President Coolidge proclaimed it the "Nation's Christmas Tree".   The tree stands in the middle of the forest.  There is a 1/3 mile walkway around it and some other significant trees are close by.  The largest known sequoia tree in the General Sherman Tree in the Sequoia Park.  Unfortunately the winter parking area was full so I couldn't stop.  You get the idea right away that these trees are big.  I learned that the sequoia trees have the greatest mass and the redwood trees are the tallest.  Considering that Gen U. S. Grant was a relatively small man, he would have been proud of his tree.
I took an alternate route out of the park.  The sign tells half the story.  The rest of the story is the elevation dropped 6000 feet while the road made all those hairpin turns. At about 2000 ft the landscape loomed like an alpine meadow.