Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia’s

Mariposa Grove  reopened to the public on June 15, 2018, after a 3 year restoration. Mariposa Grove is home to 500 mature giant sequoias, the grand Grizzly Giant, one of Mariposa Grove’s oldest trees, is estimated to be around 1,800 years old and is a popular attraction among visitors to Yosemite National Park can be seen from the Grizzly Giant Loop and Mariposa Grove Trail. 

These big trees are not as impressive from far away as they are in person; they are magnificent, and worth the hike to observe them in all of their glory.

The term “big trees” doesn’t even begin to do the sequoias in the grove justice. The sequoias can grow over 300 feet tall. While their height is exceptional, it is their impressive and unbelievable girth that sets sequoias apart from other trees in the world. Their trunks can reach 100 feet in circumference–the measurement around the full width of the trunk–and they can spread more than 20 feet in diameter–the distance from one edge of the trunk to the other if you were to draw a line straight across.

Although these trees were logged in the early 1870s, (one of the reasons John Muir fought so hard to protect the sequoia groves surrounding Yosemite National Park). Their lumber was very brittle and wasn’t as useful as other trees in the area. This, among preservation efforts from other organizations, fortunately helped protect these giants in following years from further destruction.

Sequoias continually grow unlike mammals. Their age, girth and height work in unison to keep these organisms resilient. To reproduce, each tree needs to produce a single maturing offspring over its lifespan of several thousand years for the species to persist. The giant sequoias in the area only reproduce by seeds which can remain in the cone for upwards of 20 years. Forest fires help open the cones, which then grow from the burnt, naked soil, helping the reproduction process.

These massive and ancient giant sequoias can be found in three groves in Yosemite National Park. The most easily accessible of these from the spring through fall is the Mariposa Grove near the park’s south entrance, where the restoration took place, off of Wawona Road (Highway 41), and two smaller groves, the Tuolumne Grove and MercedGroves near Crane Flat.

The Mariposa Grove restoration project dedicated time and effort to protect hundreds of local sequoias, supporting the lives of these spectacular trees in Yosemite National Park for generations to come.