General Grant Tree - Kings Canyon NP, California
N 36° 44.840 W 118° 58.386
11S E 323852 N 4068658
The world's third-largest tree
Waymark Code: WM8KNT
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/15/2010
Views: 22
Giant Sequoia trees are native to only California and the largest ones grow in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.
The General Grant Tree is the largest tree in Kings Canyon. Named for the leader of the Union forces during the Civil War, it is the world's third-largest living being and has the greatest base diameter of any sequoia at 40.3 feet. This is 3.5 feet more than the world's largest tree, General Sherman, in Sequoia National Park. The Grant tree trunk, however, quickly tapers to 29 feet DBH (Diameter at Breast Height, or 4.5 feet above the ground), the standard measure of tree size. The General Grant Tree is as tall as a 27-story building. It is wider at the base than a three-lane freeway.
Fun Facts from the interpretive sign:
It takes 20 people holding hands to make a complete circle around the tree.
The tree trunk could hold 159,000 basketballs or more than 37 million ping-pong balls.
If the tree were a a gas tank on a car that got 25 miles per gallon, it could drive around the earth 350 times without refueling.