Bachelor and Three Graces

Four giant sequoias stand here with their roots so intertwined that if one of the Three Graces falls, it will probably take the others down with it. They have staked everything on each other. The Graces are the three that grow very close together. The Bachelor stands a little apart, near enough to belong to the group and far enough off to earn the name. From the Grizzly Giant Loop Trail the four read as one composition, and that is how the grove treats them: a single named stop rather than four separate trees. We do the same. The arrangement is the whole point. Most famous sequoias are famous alone, for a record or a scar or a hole cut through them. This one is famous for a relationship. Three giants holding on to the same ground is either a picture of mutual support or a single accident waiting to happen, depending on your mood, and the names suggest whoever christened them chose the first reading. They stand on the lower loop from the Arrival Area, on the same walk as the Grizzly Giant and the California Tunnel Tree, so all three fit into one short outing. We have not found a reliable height, girth or age for any of the four; one figure in circulation repeats the same number in two unrelated units and looks like a slip rather than a measurement. If you have a real one, tell us.