Big Stump grove is a few miles outside of the Grant Grove Village on Hwy 180. Here you will find a fair sized carpark, picnic tables, bathrooms and two mile loop trail leading to the meadow where you will see quite a few giant sequoia stumps, the result of logging in the late 19th century.
We walked the trail in April. Much of it was not yet cleared of fallen trees from the winter season and certain sections still under snow. We walked all the way to the Mark Twain tree, which is a giant stump with a staircase, allowing you to climb to the levelled trunk of the old tree to better experience its size.
At this point, snowmelt had caused a stream to run through the meadow cutting us off from the rest of this loop trail. So we turned and went back to the carpark.
In the end, sort of sad seeing so many massive tree stumps and reading the information panels describing logging in the area. What a shame to have lost the majority of the grove of sequoias here. We were happy to see a few survivors of the logging era amongst the forest during...
Read moreSkip the trail and take a shortcut. It’s right by the park entrance. It’s just a spot on the side of the road. Ask the entry attendant and they’ll point you to it. It took a couple minutes to walk to the spot and I loved it!!! I thought it was so fun to climb up the cute ladder and walk around on the huge stump! I went up and down the ladder three times and...
Read moreGreat to see and get up close to some huge sequoia stumps. You can even climb some of them to see what they look like on the inside. For me it was better than the General Sherman Trail, because those trees are all fenced and there are a lot a people all around you, while we’ve been completely alone on the Big...
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