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My son and I spent a long weekend camping and hiking in the Sequoia National Park in California. It was the first time I had ever been there despite living only 4 hours drive from there. For some reason, I always ended up in Yosemite and not going the extra 100 miles or so to this awesome place.

The park, as the name suggests, is home to a large number of Sequoias. Sequoias are a red wood (a pine tree family member) and grow to enormous proportions. The coastal redwoods, that grow near Mendocino are taller than the Sequoias, but not as thick around the trunk. The Sequoias are huge and majestic. The national park is home to a tree called The General Sherman, allegedly the largest tree in the world, by volume. In other words, there are a few trees taller and there are trees that are thicker, but this is the tallest “thick” tree. It was indeed huge. Apparently, when these trees were first seen in the mid-1800s, nobody back east believed the reports, calling them a hoax. The trees are indeed absolutely huge and their color is distinctly different from the other pines in the forest. They are much redder as seen below.

This is an HDR comprised of 3 shots two stops apart. The HDR process does a marvelous job of accentuating the colors and the textures of these magnificent trees. I’ll be sure to post more soon.

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