Sequoia National Park, with its majestic endangered trees (the last of their kind) was the third National Park in as many weeks to make me cry. In Yosemite and Zion, it was the mountainscapes that generated awe, presented to the park visitor in the most spectacular fashion, via carefully engineered entrance roads that brought you out of tunnels to breathtaking views. I literally had to stop the car on emerging from such tunnels to catch my breath (lest I drive off the cliff face into the valley below). Here, in Sequoia, it was some combination of the sheer size of the trees, along with their tragic history (the knowledge that these ancient giants were once prolific throughout California before the modernist imperative resulted in their mass deforestation – one more example of human greed arising from the myth of progress).

A glimpse of the High Sierra through this fallen log at Moro Rock

Steps leading up to Moro Rock

The Parker Group – my first encounter. I cried like a baby when I got my hands on these beauties

General Sherman (claimed to be the largest tree in the world)

He’s a decent size

I did a couple of short walks in the park and was blown away by the beauty of the place

Giant specimens everywhere I looked

The Senate – the American people would probably have more faith in their current government if these silent sentinels ran the country

I think I’m in love

So you get the picture…

I love trees

Lots and lots of beautiful trees

A very different experience to hiking in the Australian bush

Farewell Sequoia – you have a little piece of my heart