Faithful Couple

Two giant sequoias grew up so close together that their trunks fused at the base, and they have gone on as one. The grove calls them the Faithful Couple, and for once a sentimental name describes the tree exactly. Fused sequoias are rare. Here two trees took root on the same patch of ground, and at some point in their long lives the gap between them closed. What you see now is one base carrying two trunks, which is why we count it as one tree to stand at rather than two. It is a named stop on the Mariposa Grove Trail, on the climb toward the upper grove, close to the Clothespin Tree. That makes it part of a longer walk than the Grizzly Giant loop: from the Arrival Area the round trip is around eleven kilometres, and most people fold it into the upper-grove loop rather than walking out and back. What we cannot tell you is how old the pair is or how big. Neither the park service nor any other source we checked has published a height, a girth or an age for it, and our pin sits on the trail near it rather than at the trunk. If you have measured it, or stood at it with a phone, tell us.