Early roots

Most people know Yellowstone was the first national park. Ask what the second was and you may get shrugs, but it was Sequoia National Park, and it’s celebrating its 135th year on Sept. 25.

Here’s a look at the trees it was named for — the largest on the planet — and how the national park system has grown.

Jurassic Park?

The oldest known redwood fossils date back more than 200 million years to the Jurassic period, and the trees once grew throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The last giant sequoias are in about 73 groves scattered over 48,000 acres along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The northernmost sequoias grow in Tahoe National Forest, and the southernmost groves are in Sequoia National Forest northeast of Bakersfield.

Giant sequoias live a very long time and g

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