Yosemite's Mariposa Grove - The World's Largest Trees

While hiking Yosemite Valley is fantastic (I'll certainly write something about it soon), if you're in love with big trees there is another place inside Yosemite National Park you can't miss: 'Mariposa Grove' - one of the last stands of Giant Sequoias with about 100 mature specimen. Today, these forests only exist in a narrow stripe along the western slopes of Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Unfortunately 'Mariposa Grove' is closed down permanently until early spring 2017 for restoration purposes (how do you restore a forest?), so I think you have to stick with this post in the meanwhile :-)

Giant Sequoias are supposed to be the largest living single organisms in terms of volume. They grow for thousands of years and were notoriously threatened by logging. It was intense when a guy approached me on the beach of Los Angeles telling me the story about the unbelievable human devastation of Sequoias and handing me a small Sequoia seed to plant it when back home :-)

So now let's start our quick walkthrough Mariposa Grove. First, some basic information.

Me standing in front of a "small one" upon arrival. Fascinating. Dwarf. 

Colors from a fairytale - who would want to cut them down?

Looks bad? But did you know that these trees have coevolved with occasional fire and that it is even necessary for the seeds to germinate?

A fallen giant - centuries of decomposition begin nourishing new life. 

The 'Grizzly Giant' - the biggest of all in the grove. If that's not enough visit Sequoia National Park - they got the largest in the world. This woman appears so tiny. 

Some are even suited for cars.

Intricate ecosystem isn't it?

Hope you enjoyed is as much as I did. Dying to go back and visit some of another 60 remaining Sequoia Groves. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section.

Upvote and Follow me @mcsvi if you want to see more.