Dispatch from Fresno, California Text, photographs and web design by Erik Gauger
In Sequoia National Park, the trees are quite big.
The trees in Sequoia are so big in fact, they are the largest in the world.
They are not, however, the tallest. Their cousins, the coastal redwoods are the tallest, and are located and protected on the Northern California coast in several groves. Sequoias, rather, are incredibly thick. The largest weigh up to 2.7 million pounds.
But the Coastal Redwoods are not the tallest potential living trees on Earth.
Just a few hundred years ago, Australia's Mountain Ash trees dwarfed the Redwood. 436 feet, or 67 feet higher than today's tallest tree.
The General Sherman Tree, one of the world's tallest trees, is believed to be 2,500 years old.
