California Tunnel Tree

This is the last giant sequoia tunnel tree still standing anywhere. You can walk through it, and for thirty-seven years horse-drawn stages drove through it. The Yosemite Stage and Turnpike Company cut the passage through its base in 1895. It was meant as an alternative to the more famous Wawona Tunnel Tree: lower down, less often snowbound, and so usable for more of the year. A piece of road engineering that happened to be alive. In 1932 the Mariposa Grove Road was rerouted away from the Grizzly Giant, and traffic through the tree ended. The old road through it was turned into a footpath, which is what runs through the tunnel today. The Wawona Tunnel Tree fell in 1969. The California Tunnel Tree is the one that outlived the idea. That is the whole appeal, and it is an uncomfortable one. Nobody would cut a hole through a sequoia now, and there is no better argument for why not than a tree still growing around a doorway made for stagecoaches more than 130 years ago. It stands just past the Grizzly Giant on the same loop trail, so the two make one short walk. Nobody has published its height, its girth or its age. If you have seen a measurement, tell us.