If you and your family have the opportunity to visit the General Grant Tree of Kings Canyon National Park you are in for a treat.
Parents can walk among and appreciate the majesty of these ancient and immense Giant Sequoia Redwood trees. Kids will enjoy being outside, playing in an old cabin, and walking through the Fallen Monarch, a cave-like giant redwood that is so big that it once stabled 32 U.S. Cavalry horses.
The General Grant Tree is important because it is the world’s third-largest living thing (by volume). The General Grant is 268 feet (81.6 meters) in height and has a circumference of 107.5 feet (32.7 meters)! It is not just big, but ancient; although the exact age of The General Grant is not known the National Park Service’s website estimates the tree to be between 1,800 and 2,700 years old.
When visiting this tree spend a few minutes contemplating about the civilizations and people who lived about 2,000 years ago, then consider that the General Grant was likely an old tree when those people walked the earth. Wow!
Some “fun facts” displayed on a placard near the General Grant Tree help visitors better understand more about this immense redwood, they include:
- If the trunk of the General Grant Tree was a gas tank on a car that got 25 miles per gallon, you could drive around the earth 350 times without refueling.
- The General Grant Tree is so wide it would take about twenty people holding hands to make a complete circle around the base.
- If the General Grant Tree’s trunk could be filled with sports equipment, it could hold 159,000 basketballs or more than 37 million ping-pong balls.
- President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the General Grant Tree to be the nation’s Christmas Tree in 1926. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated it as a National Shrine, a living memorial to those who have given their lives for their country.
Many of the Giant Redwood trees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains were named just after the American Civil War. It was at this time that General Grant Tree was named after Ulysses S. Grant the final leader of the Union forces. A short distance away from the Grant Tree is the Robert E. Lee Tree, named for the leader of the Confederate forces. The Lee tree is the 12th largest tree on the planet.
The General Grant Tree and other Giant Sequoias are located in Kings Canyon National Park and the adjacent Sequoia National Park. Visitors to the Grant Tree can enjoy a self-guided trail that is half a mile (.8 kilometers) in length. The trail from the parking area is paved so wheelchairs and strollers are welcome. The location of the Grant Tree is roughly a 1.5-hour drive east of Fresno, California.