Sequoia National Park

Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its southern entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at elevation. The lower elevations around Ash Mountain contain the only National Park Service-protected California Foothills ecosystem, consisting of blue oak woodlands, foothills chaparral, grasslands, yucca plants, and steep, mild river valleys. Seasonal weather results in a changing landscape throughout the foothills with hot summer yielding an arid landscape while spring and winter rains result in blossoming wildflowers and lush greens. The region is also home to abundant wildlife: bobcats, foxes, ground squirrels, rattlesnakes, and mule deer are commonly seen in this area, and more rarely, reclusive mountain lions and the Pacific fisher are seen as well. The last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922 (at Horse Corral Meadow). The California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest. At higher elevations in the front country, between in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt. Found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey, sugar, and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir. Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on Earth. Between the trees, spring and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see mule deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black bears, which sometimes break into unattended cars to eat food left by careless visitors. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park. ==Back country==

The vast majority of the park is road-less wilderness; no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the park's boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is accessible only by foot or by horseback. The majority was designated Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness in 1984 and the southwest portion was protected as John Krebs Wilderness in 2009. ==History==

Native Americans The area which now is Sequoia National Park shows evidence of Native American settlement as early as AD 1000. The area was home to "Monachee" (Western Mono) Native Americans, who resided mainly in the Kaweah River drainage in the Foothills region of what is now the western part of the park, though evidence of seasonal habitation exists as high as the Giant Forest. Members of this tribe were permanent residents of the park, with a population estimate of around 2,000. During this time, the Western Mono tribe would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with the Owens Valley Paiute and the Yokuts. The Tübatulabal language is in the Uto-Aztecan language family but is distinctive from the languages of other tribes in the region. The tribe was made up of three bands, each having their own chief, which regularly met and intermarried. They were semi-nomadic, moving regularly in warmer months but building more permanent villages in the winter. These villages included dwellings for two to six families and supply storage huts built each fall. Their diet was made up mainly of acorns, pine nuts, and fish, and also included berries, seeds, plants, and local game. They made a wide variety of tools, including baskets, pottery, hunting, trapping, and fishing materials, sewing supplies, and musical instruments. and the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada within the modern park boundaries. The tribe is often misassociated with other neighboring tribes because of their linguistic similarities with the Mono people and their cultural similarities to the Northern Paiutes in Nevada. The Owens Valley Paiute were a hunter-gatherer society who were also skilled in fishing and in irrigation techniques. Additionally, the Shoshone (Newe) people lived to the east of the Sierra Nevadas, Buffalo Soldiers Another consequence of the Giant Forest becoming Sequoia National Park was the shift in park employment. Prior to the incorporation by the National Park Service, the park was managed by US army troops of the 24th Regiment of Infantry and the 9th Regiment of Cavalry, better known as the Buffalo Soldiers. These segregated troops, founded in 1866, were African-American men from the South, an invaluable demographic to the military with the lowest rates of desertion. The Buffalo Soldiers completed park infrastructure projects as well as park management duties, helping to shape the role of the modern-day park ranger. The Buffalo Soldiers rose to this position due to a lack of funding for the park which led to an inability to hire civilians. , the third African-American graduate of West Point and the first Black U.S. National Park Service superintendent, led the cavalries of Buffalo Soldiers in the Sequoia and General Grant Parks. The third African-American West Point graduate, Captain Charles Young led the cavalries of Buffalo Soldiers in the Sequoia and General Grant Parks. Young landed this post as a result of the segregation rampant throughout the Army: as a black man, he was not permitted to head any combat units. He led by delegating park infrastructure projects, hosting tourists and politicians, and setting a standard of a strong work ethic into his men. Young was also a prominent figure regarding the early conservation of Sequoia National Park. He greenlighted the dedication of trees in honor of prominent figures as a means of promoting their preservation. One such example is the Redwood dedicated to the escaped slave and activist, Booker T Washington. Young also argued to the Secretary of the Interior that the lack of enforcement of forest protection laws allowed the detrimental practices of logging and the popular tourist hobby of carving names into the redwoods to continue. This site known as Mineral King was annexed to the park. Its name dates back to early 1873 when the miners in the area formed the Mineral King Mining District. Mineral King is the highest-elevation developed site within the park and a popular destination for backpackers. The national park was partially closed in September 2020 due to the SQF Complex Fire, and fully closed in mid-September through mid-December 2021 due to the KNP Complex Fire. ==Climate==

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Sequoia National Park encompasses five climate types listed here from highest to lowest elevation; Tundra (ET), Mediterranean-influenced Subarctic climate (Dsc), Mediterranean-influenced warm-summer Humid continental climate (Dsb), Warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb), and Hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Csa). Precipitation also decreases with elevation. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Plant Hardiness zone at Giant Forest Visitor Center () is 8a with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of . {{Weather box {{Weather box|width=auto ==Geology==

Sequoia National Park contains a significant portion of the Sierra Nevada. The park's mountainous landscape includes the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, which rises to above sea level. The Great Western Divide parallels the Sierran crest and is visible at various places in the park, for example, Mineral King, Moro Rock, and the Giant Forest. Peaks in the Great Western Divide rise to more than . Deep canyons lie between the mountains, including Tokopah Valley above Lodgepole, Deep Canyon on the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River, and Kern Canyon in the park's backcountry, which is more than deep for . above Hamilton Lake passes over the Great Western Divide Most of the mountains and canyons in the Sierra Nevada are composed of granitic rocks. These rocks, such as granite, diorite and monzonite, formed when molten rock cooled far beneath the surface of the earth. The molten rock was the result of a geologic process known as subduction. Powerful forces in the earth forced the landmass under the waters of the Pacific Ocean beneath and below an advancing North American Continent. Super-hot water driven from the subducting ocean floor migrated upward and melted rock as it proceeded. This process took place during the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago. Granitic rocks have a speckled salt-and-pepper appearance because they contain various minerals including quartz, feldspars and micas. Valhalla, or the Angel Wings, are prominent granitic cliffs that rise above the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River. The cave is a constant , and is only accessible by guided tour. Caves are discovered frequently in the park with the most recently discovered major cave being Ursa Minor in August 2006. ==Flora and fauna==

Sequoia National Park encompasses many classifications of ecological zones, with the highest zone consisting of alpine tundra vegetation, then followed by California conifer forests, with chaparral at the lower elevations of the park. In the early 2000s, lumber company, Sierra Pacific Industries, began creating a living gene bank of trees using seeds harvested from the park. Animals that inhabit this park are coyote, badger, black bear, bighorn sheep, deer, fox, cougar, eleven species of woodpecker, various species of turtle, three species of owl, opossum, various species of snake, wolverine, beaver, various species of frog, and muskrat. ==Park attractions==

looking up In addition to hiking, camping, fishing, and backpacking, the following attractions are highlights with many park visitors: • Sherman Tree Trail is an 0.8-mile-roundtrip paved trail that descends from the parking lot to the base of the General Sherman Tree and meanders through a grove of giant sequoia trees. • Tunnel Log is a fallen giant sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park. The tree, which measured tall and in diameter, fell across a park road in 1937 due to natural causes. The following year, a crew cut an tall, wide tunnel through the trunk, making the road passable again. • The trail to Tokopah Falls starts just beyond the Marble Fork Bridge in Lodgepole Campground. It is an easy 1.7-mile (one way) walk along the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River to the impressive granite cliffs and waterfall of Tokopah Canyon. Tokopah Falls is high, and is most impressive in early summer. • Crescent Meadow is a small, sequoia-rimmed meadow in the Giant Forest region of Sequoia National Park. This sierran montane meadow marks the western terminus of the High Sierra Trail, which stretches from the meadow across the Great Western Divide to Mount Whitney. Pioneer Hale Tharp homesteaded in this and nearby Log Meadow. Conservationist John Muir visited this meadow many times and called it the "Gem of the Sierra". The meadow lies at the end of a three-mile paved road, which leaves the Generals Highway near the Giant Forest Museum. • Moro Rock is a granite dome located in the center of the park, at the head of Moro Creek, between Giant Forest and Crescent Meadow. A 351-step stairway, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is cut into and poured onto the rock, so that visitors can hike to the top. The stairway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The view from the rock encompasses much of the park, including the Great Western Divide. It has an elevation of . • Campgrounds in the park include three in the foothills area: Potwisha (42 sites), Buckeye Flat (28 sites), and South Fork (10 sites). Four campgrounds are at higher, conifer-dominated elevations, ranging from : Atwell Mill (21 sites), Cold Springs (40 sites), Lodgepole (214 sites), and Dorst Creek (204 sites). • Giant Forest Museum offers information about giant sequoias and human history in the forest. The historic museum was built in 1928 by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood. == In popular culture ==

Apple's macOS Sequoia was named after Sequoia National Park. ==See also==