A giant sequoia towers above visitors to Tuolumne Grove in Yosemite National Park. Tuolumne is one of three named sequoia groves in Yosemite.
A year ago (September 2012) my husband and I visited Yosemite National Park, a magnificent place. Here are some photos from the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias, which is near the Rim Fire, California’s fourth largest fire since 1932. It’s burning an area more than seven times larger than San Francisco (about 368 square miles), according to an NBC story. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that the Rim Fire was 75% contained Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013.
The Yosemite park staff posted this on its Facebook page: Giant sequoias are resistant to, and thrive on, frequent small fires that naturally burned every several years. In order to protect the giant sequoias from the extremely intense Rim Fire, crews performed some protective work in the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias just over a week ago (as you can see in this video). Since then, firing operations in the area have provided additional protection. So, while fire maps show the Tuolumne Grove within the fire perimeter, the giant sequoias are safe.
Yosemite National Park Facebook Page
Why a Century of Fire Prevention Means Trouble for Yosemite’s Giant Sequoias
Click on any thumbnail to see a much larger size in a slide show, including Tuolumne Signs in a readable size.
Yosemite National Park video.
Catherine Sherman 
Catherine, like you we really love Yosemite, and I’m so glad to hear that the fire is 75% contained. I didn’t realize that sequoias are so fire resistant – good news. Great post! 🙂 ~Terri
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We were just up in Yosemite in May for the spring Strawberry Festival, so I was shocked to hear that the fall festival had been cancelled as the fire is right in that area. While there, we’d hiked along Hetch Hetchy, which is also close to the fire. This was of concern as it supplies so much of the water to San Francisco.
I read that a couple who’d met at the Strawberry Festival two years ago planned to have their wedding at a nearby lodge, but it was closed due to the fire. 😦 It’s such a beautiful area, but we’ve had high temps and zero water, so I’m not surprised that the fire has consumed so much.
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I always dreamt of making my home inside one of them trees. Would it be crude to suggest putting in fire hydrants. Squirrels like them, right?
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