Packing for Adventure

You could argue that once you’ve seen one giant sequoia, you’ve seen them all, but we weren’t willing to take that chance. These trees are thousands of years old, wildly different in shape and personality, and scattered across some of the most beautiful terrain in California. So we did what any reasonable people would do: we tried to see every major sequoia we possibly could.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 largest sequoias by trunk volume, plus a few extra to account for fire damage to some of the trees.

1. General Sherman Tree
   • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
   • Location: Sequoia National Park
   • The largest tree in the world by volume—and one of the easiest to visit, thanks to a paved trail.
2. General Grant Tree
   • Grove: General Grant Grove
   • Location: Kings Canyon National Park
   • Often called the “Nation’s Christmas Tree,” and second largest in the world.
3. President Tree
   • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
   • Location: Sequoia National Park
   • Named after Warren G. Harding and located directly on the Congress Tree Trail.
4. Lincoln Tree
   • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
   • Location: Sequoia National Park
   • Named for Abraham Lincoln of course, and just off the Congress Trail via a short spur near the Alta Trail.
5. Stagg Tree
   • Grove: Alder Creek Grove
   • Location: on private land within the Giant Sequoia National Monument (not reliably accessible to the public)
   • Named after Amos Alonzo Stagg, an innovative college football coach.
6. Boole Tree
   • Grove: Converse Basin Grove
   • Location: just outside Kings Canyon National Park in the Giant Sequoia National Monument
   • Named after Franklin A. Boole, a superintendent of the Converse Basin Mill who rescued the tree from logging.
7. Genesis Tree*
   • Grove: Mountain Home Grove
   • Location: Southern Sierra Nevada mountains
   • Sustained heavy damage from the Castle Fire in 2020.
8. Franklin Tree
   • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
   • Location: Sequoia National Park
   • Named for Benjamin Franklin, the path is unmarked and generally requires navigation skills to reach.
9. King Arthur Tree*
   • Grove: Garfield Grove
   • Location: Sequoia National Park
   • Destroyed in the Castle Fire in 2020 😢
10. Monroe Tree
    • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
    • Location: Sequoia National Park
    • Named for James Monroe, this tree is not officially marked, but located near established trails.
11. Robert E. Lee Tree
    • Grove: General Grant Grove
    • Location: Kings Canyon National Park
    • Named for, you guessed it, Robert E. Lee.
12. Floyd Otter Tree*
    • Grove: Garfield Grove
    • Location: Sequoia National Park
    • Named for a former manager of the Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest, this tree sustained heavy damage from the Castle Fire in 2020.
13. John Adams Tree
    • Grove: Giant Forest Grove
    • Location: Sequoia National Park, near the Cattle Cabin
    • Named for John Adams, and considering fire damage, is the 10th largest Sequoia Tree in the world.

What’s crazy is that all these giant trees started out with unbelievably small seeds in comparison. A giant sequoia seed is only about the size of an oat flake. Thousands of seeds can come from one tree in a year, but only a tiny fraction actually grow into these friendly giants.

Up Next:

We were able to see the majority of these trees since they are mostly located in the most popular areas of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. There was one tree from this list in particular that is not inside the park boundaries, but was close enough we just had to go visit. The next post in this series will detail which tree, and our (mis)adventures seeing it.

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