Giant sequoia trees are the largest living things ever to exist on earth. Fossil records date back 180 million years and each individual tree can live up to 3,000 years. Each tree weighst about 2,600 tons or 18 blue whales. The roots are 6- 8 feet underground and can spread outwards up to an acre. There are only 75 groves of these trees in the western Sierra Nevadas Mountians.The tallest tree or tree wiht greatest mass in the North Grove of this park is 30 feet in diameter- that six of me wide!
The blurry spec in front of the tree yeah that's me.
Photo Credit: Chris Novellino
On June 24, we also visited Mercer Caverns in Murpys, Califronia. In the 1800s, a man with the last name Mercer was looking for gold when stumbled upon the opening of the cavern, he tied a rope to a rock above and ventured inside the hole with his only lgiht being a board wihta candle on to . He witnessed the beautufl cavern walls inside and decided that he would make the cavern viewable to others. He kept venturing futher discovering more and more of the cavern over the years. One day he fell during one of his excursions in the cavern and his wife continued his legacy. The cave itself was formed by an underground river and is 16 stories deep; it too is probably connected to other canverns in the surrounding area. The minerals inside the cavern won awards at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. It was nice to beat the heat of the a sunny Californian day deep inside of a cool cavern.
Within the cavern.
Photo Credit: Trish Seelman
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