Last Wednesday we visited Sequoia National Park where the largest tree (by volume) in the world lives. The General Sherman tree trunk is 36.5 feet across and the circumference is 102.6 feet around the base. If you were to lay the tree down, it would nearly cover the length of a (American) football field.

It seems that many tourist attractions these days have a biggest, largest, tallest something, but these giant sequoias are truly spectacular. It was amazing to think that the largest living thing was standing in front of us and its roots were spread along the topsoil under our feet.

While visiting Sequoia National Park, we also toured around the museum and trekked along snow covered paths to learn about the habitat and history of Sequoia trees. One awesome thing about visiting at this time of year is that the park was virtually empty of humans and we saw plenty of wildlife, including a coyote hanging out by the road.

We spent two days in this very charming town bordering Sequoia National Park. Two days in the country were very therapeutic and provided much appreciated downtime, as well as a chance to spend time with Aunt Susie and our cousin Terran. There are so many wonderful attributes about Three Rivers, so I’ll just mention several of our favorites:

3) Susie’s house is located on the side of a mountain with an incredible view of Kings Canyon. Her house is surrounded with decks and the wall facing the view is almost entirely made of windows!

2) Kaweah River runs through the town. The North, South and East forks of the Kaweah merge into one river, which is where Three Rivers gets its name. The rivers’ presence creates waterfalls and lakes in the area, providing a number of very scenic hikes and opportunities for fun in the water. The most prominent noise from Susie’s deck is the soothing sound of the river rushing past in the valley below.

1) Susie and Terran have such wonderful friends and are very generous hosts! We had so much fun hanging out with the locals and especially enjoyed Terran’s baseball game on Tuesday night. It was a real nail biter. Go Diamondbacks!