Why You Need to See the World's Largest Trees at Sequoia National Park!

​I did it—I finally crossed off goal #3 from my travel and adventure bucket list. And what was #3? Looking up, way up, at the world’s largest trees, live and in-person, at California’s Sequoia National Park. Boom.

​It was unreal. How could some teeny, tiny seeds the size of single oatmeal flakes grow into these mammoth, living, breathing, highly resilient organisms that’ve seen over two thousand years of age on this planet? Yep, Sequoia’s are the largest trees in the world by volume, and heck, you might find it even more mind-blowing that they aren’t even the tallest. That record belongs to Northern Cali’s Redwoods.

​And what’s crazy is that I did actually catch sight of the world’s largest tree, dubbed ‘General Sherman’. At 83-meters tall (275 ft.) tall and 11-meters (36 ft.) wide at its base, trust me, no camera could do enough justice in capturing just how mammoth the Sherm’ actually is in once you’re standing directly in front of it.  

It’s just too bad guests weren’t allowed to reach out and, you know, actually touch it. Nevertheless, the blockades are there for good reason. After all, at 2500 years old and counting, and still very much unblemished, it’s only right that the General Sherman is preserved as much as possible.

There were hundreds of other Sequoias along the Congress Trail that guests could get up-close and personal with though, and that’s when the party began. 

Everybody would stop to touch their bark—some of the most resilient in the world—and try to wrap their arms around the tree’s giant frames.

I guess there’s just something about gigantic trees that makes people want to give them hugs.

We’d also take a walkway through trees that had fell over, examine thousands of rings in the trunks of Sequoias that had been cut down, and even catch sight of trees that had caught fire hundreds of years ago. It’s crazy that they were still standing and growing! 

It was just a half-day trip, so the last leg of our tour was a stop at Moro Rock Trail. This was a short hike that led us 2050-meters (6,726 ft.) high above the ground, and so we had a sweet bird’s eye view of the thousands of Sequoias clustered together down below. 

What’s more, the cool part is that I—well, everybody that made it—took in some of the cleanest, freshest air ever our lungs have probably ever felt in a long, almost-too-long, time. Get away from the big city every once in a while and you can definitely tell the difference!

All in all, I’d say my trip to Sequoia National Park was pretty awesome. Not only did I lay eyes on the largest trees in the world and learn facts about Sequoias, but it was also fairly easy to arrive there, navigate the Forest, and the park guides were probably some of the nicest, most helpful, and informative people I’ve ever met in my life, no kidding.

​This one’s a highly recommend if you’re in California! 

Directions to Sequoia National Park from Los Angeles by Bus:

From Los Angeles, we took a Greyhound Bus to Visalia Transit Center. It took about 4.5 hours.

From Visalia Transit Center, we caught the Sequoia National Park shuttle bus that goes directly to Sequoia National Park. We arrived in about 2 hours. You can make reservations for the Sequoia National Park shuttle bus at the Sequoia Shuttle website. 

​That’s it! There’s no entrance fee, so feel free to roam!