Calaveras Big Trees — Giant Sequoias of the Sierra Nevada

Aspiratio: Mountain Dogwood Beneath Sequoia. These are creatures who remind you every moment that life is so much more than you. In this image, showing a mountain dogwood against the dappled light of the redwoods and titled aspiratio—Latin for “aspirational”—we celebrate the striving of the small in the shadows of the large. the human-scaled trail winding beside them feels incongruous.

One of the “hidden” gems of the California State Park system is Calaveras Big Trees State Park. It’s not exactly unknown, but it is lesser known. And maybe that’s a good thing. It is a beautiful, well-maintained park, with distinct North and South Groves of sequoias and spacious, relaxing campgrounds, each campsite outfitted with bear lockers, picnic tables, fire pits, running water and ample parking. But the stars of the show are the trees and what trees these are.

This was my first visit to Calaveras Big Trees State Park, though I had been through Arnold, Murphys, and Angels Camp before. If you haven’t, you owe this slice of old California to yourself.

These aren’t coastal redwoods here, but they are members of the genus of redwood coniferous trees in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae, specifically Sequoiadendron giganteum or Giant Sequoia, the group that produces the largest by weight living thing on earth. And once among them, you never stop being aware of that. Or your relativity to it.