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1 / 17 Look up You are at the foot of the General Sherman Tree. The trunk goes up 83.8 m, and the first big limb only starts at 39.6 m. Drag to look around; the pale figures are people 1.7 m tall.
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01 Look up You are at the foot of the General Sherman Tree. The trunk goes up 83.8 m, and the first big limb only starts at 39.6 m. Drag to look around; the pale figures are people 1.7 m tall.
02 A person for scale The figure by the fence is 1.7 m. About 49 of them standing on each other's heads would reach the top. The park fences the tree because its roots are shallow and spread wide.
03 The largest tree By trunk volume nothing alive is bigger: 1,487 m³. The trunk alone weighs nearly 1,400 tons, about as much as 15 adult blue whales. It is about 2,200 years old (the latest estimate).
04 Up the rope Canopy researchers climb on fixed ropes. Press W or ▲ to climb. The column on the left shows your height beside Sherman, Hyperion and the predicted limit for trees.
05 Water under tension Water climbs in the sapwood because the leaves pull it, not because the roots push. At 42 m gravity alone already needs 0.41 MPa of pull. A suction pump could not lift water above 10.3 m.
06 The top The top of the tree, 83.8 m. Up here water arrives under strain, leaves are smaller and thicker, and the view goes out over the crowns of the grove.
07 The fallen giant Sequoia wood is slow to rot, so a fallen giant stays whole for a long time. Walk in at this end and come out of the root end.
08 Fire A surface fire burns through the stand. The bark, up to 46 cm thick, keeps the old trees alive. Hot air rises into the crowns.
09 Seed rain A week later. The cones, closed for years, have dried and opened, and seeds as light as 5 mg fall at about 1.5 m a second onto bare soil.
10 Five years later Young sequoias stand in the sunny gaps. Without fire almost none survive under the old trees; with it, they come up in crowds.
11 Back to AD 79 The ring section: one ring for each year. The red ring is AD 79, the year Vesuvius buried Pompeii. This tree was already more than 1,000 years old.
12 1926 The General Grant Tree became the Nation's Christmas Tree in 1926. The dark notches are fire scars; after 1860 they stop.
13 Meadow of giants A 12 m bus, a 33 m blue whale, Patagotitan at about 37 m, a 26-storey block, the Statue of Liberty from the ground to the torch (93 m) and a gold pole for Hyperion's 115.55 m.
14 Into the fog The coast redwoods grow about 700 km from the sequoias, on the foggy coast. In summer fog drip gives much of the water these trees use.
15 The fairy ring When a redwood is cut or dies, sprouts come up round the stump and grow into a ring of trees. Giant sequoias cannot do this.
16 The height of Hyperion Near the top of a tree as tall as Hyperion, 115.55 m in 2006. Measurements up these trees put the limit for any tree at about 122 to 130 m.
17 Where it really grows The real Hyperion grows in a closed area off trail. The park asks visitors not to look for it, and this exhibit does not show where it is.
Foot of the General Sherman Tree The first view: the trunk from the ground, a person beside it. General Sherman Tree The largest tree by trunk volume, 1,487 m³ and 83.8 m tall. Climbing rope Climb Sherman's trunk on a researcher's fixed line. General Grant Tree 81.7 m tall and 32.8 m around at the ground, the Nation's Christmas Tree. Fallen giant A hollow fallen sequoia you can walk through. Burned stand Fire, opening cones, falling seeds and young sequoias. Ring section One ring a year since 1000 BC, fire scars and your birth year. Meadow of giants A bus, a blue whale, Patagotitan, a 26-storey block and the Statue of Liberty's height. Between the groves The two forests are about 700 km apart in reality. Coast redwoods The tallest trees, in summer fog. Hyperion's height A redwood model of the tallest known tree, 115.55 m. Not its real place. Fairy ring Redwoods sprouted round an old stump. People for scale Smooth figures 1.7 m tall, or your own height.
