Brothers named Gamblin came here as loggers in the 1870s and used a fallen sequoia as a hotel and saloon. In the Giant Forest, located in the northern part of Sequoia National Park in central California, visitors can check out four of the world's five largest sequoias. The largest are as tall as a 26-story building and are estimated to be 1,800 to 2,700 years old. The redwoods seldom die. The trees never die unless, like a drunk leaving the Gamblins' watering hole, they lose their balance and topple over.
Visitors can be grateful the wood is good for very little - only toothpicks, pencils and such.
Their claim to the timber was ruled invalid in the courts, and a few years later, in 1890, Sequoia become the nation's second national park. One week later, Congress approved an enlargement of Sequoia and a new park called General Grant, just to the north. In 1940, Grant became part of the new Kings Canyon National Park. The Grant Grove and the Giant Forest each offers a range of trails just about anyone can handle. On a given day, bears and other wildlife might be spotted from a path that winds over, under, around and even through the massive trees.