Giants and Midgets

On Hurricane Hill in Olympic National Park, trees grow slowly because of the short season, high winds, and rocky soil.

Ansel Adams once took a famous photo of a twisted tree on Sentinel Dome, but that tree has since died. So although I did take a few pictures of that one, I like this photo much better.

In Sequoia National Forest there is one ancient tree left among meadows of stumps cut down in the 1850's, the largest by volume in all the nat'l forests. The Boole Tree is large enough to walk inside and takes 71 steps to walk around its circumference.

Reece took this photo of me next to the Boole Tree in Sequoia Nat'l Forest. I thought it was the best in our collection at giving some perspective of how big these trees really are. This tree is estimated at more than 2000 years old. Used with permission.

In Sequoia Nat'l Park, Reece sits atop a large fallen sequoia.

Above Boundary Springs, Crater Lake National Park.

Standing at about 9,000 ft above sea level, this tree is probably much older than it looks. Lassen Peak Trail, California.

Redwood National Park, Lady Bird Johnson Grove. We didn't know it till later, but we hiked this trail on the day she passed away in July 2007.

Redwood National Park, Lady Bird Johnson Grove

A few reasons that Redwoods live such a long time include their resistance to disease, infestation, and fire.