Ambassadors From Another Time

I love trees - there is a grandeur and majesty to them, be it the tall slim bamboo that sways with the wind or the wizened banyan that grows an entire clan around itself with aerial roots that become serial trunks. No wonder then that I had always wanted to see the Giant Sequoias which occur naturally only in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

Amongst the largest living things on earth, they are also some of its oldest, with some trees from 4300 years back.

Imagine my thrill when I sighted the famed Grizzly Giant in Yosemite National Park - among the largest Giant Sequoias in the world, it stands 209 feet tall!

An uprooted sequoia (possibly struck by lightning) in the Mariposa Grove of Yosemite Park is a photo-op magnet.

Wawona Tunnel Tree which was cut through in 1881to make a driveway for horse carriages! The tree still stands and our race has learnt a bit of respect for these living giants in the meantime.

For me the visit to Yosemite was a 'darshan' as we say in India, a pilgrimage - a homage to our living ancestors. John Steinbeck, a native Californian summed up so beautifully his beloved Redwood trees:

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.”