I Found Apple’s Latest “Sequoia” Wallpaper IRL in California

🪄 INTRO – BIG THINGS, BIG FEELS Apple just dropped macOS Sequoia and the hero wallpaper is a single burnt-orange trunk that makes your 14-inch screen feel tiny. Turns out that tree lives inside Sequoia National Park, CA—and standing next to it is what internet folks call “megalophobia worship”: equal parts awe, dread and “please take me now, forest gods.” I went, I gasped, I made it my actual desktop. Here’s the road map. 🚗 DRIVE CHAIN – YOSEMITE ➜ KINGS CANYON ➜ SEQUOIA We left Yosemite Valley at 7 a.m., beat the 99-degree heat and hit the Generals Highway junction by 10. Entrance fee: $35 per car, good for 7 days and both Kings Canyon + Sequoia. Cell service dies at the gate—download offline Google Maps before you leave the Central Valley (or accept that you’re cosplaying 1995). Winter? Carry chains Nov-Apr; rangers WILL turn you around if you’re bald-tire betting on black ice ❄️⛓️. 📸 THE GRAND SLAM STOPS (All have parking lots; arrive before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. to skip RV conga lines.) 1️⃣ General Grant Tree – “Nation’s Christmas Tree” 5-min walk from lot; circumference 107 ft, age ~1,700 yrs. Early light shafts through the canopy = instant cinematic silhouette. Bonus 0.5-mi loop passes the Fallen Monarch—hollow trunk you can stand inside for LOTR dwarf-selfie energy. 2️⃣ General Sherman Tree – THE star of Apple’s wallpaper Descent trail = 0.5 mi, 200 ft drop; what goes down must come UP (elevator calves tomorrow). Stats that melt brains: 275 ft tall, 36 ft diameter at base, volume 52,500 cu ft = largest living organism by mass on Earth. Pro tip: keep walking past the main viewing platform; the less-crowded “Congress Trail” spits you into House & Senate groves where trunks look like fluted marble pillars. Sit on a bench, stare upward until your neck cramps—congrats, you just felt cosmic scale. 3️⃣ Tunnel Log – Car-eating sequoia TikTok gold 1937 wind-fall still alive; 17-ft tunnel carved for tourist lols. Height limit 8 ft—anything taller = back up and walk through. Passenger hangs out window for the slow-mo drive-by. Either side of the road: random root-buttresses & entire groves you can have to yourself if you hike 200 m further . 🏃🏼‍♂️‍➡️ MICRO-HIKES FOR DIFFERENT GAS TANKS 30-min: Big Trees Trail (1 mi loop, wheelchair friendly, interpretive signs). 90-min: Crescent Meadow + Log Meadow (2 mi flat, deer, wildflowers, Tharp’s Log cabin). Half-day: Alta Peak or Lakes Trail if you want granite views AND giants—start 6 a.m., bring filter for snowmelt water. #US #CA #Sonoma