I returned with my sketchbook (a different sketchbook of course) to the North Grove Trail at Calaveras Big Tress State Park.

It was a Saturday in late March and the park was packed! The further along the trail I traveled, the less people there were.

I wanted to sketch the Mother of the Forest. This tree represent the human greed at it’s worst and human desire to exploit nature for profit. In 1854 the sequoia’s bark was stripped off in eight foot lengths. The bark was reassembled and displayed in New York and London, for profit of course.

Without the tree’s outer armor, the tree died. To some 19th century observers, this sparked outrage and people began to understand that these living giants needed to be protected and this shift in thinking gave rise to the redwood protection movement in California. And is the reason these trees are protected today.

I picked a sketching spot against a shed-sized boulder near marker number 18 and started a sketch that looked into the grove (featured sketch). The view sketched is looking into the heart of the grove where the large trees can be from 800 to 3,000 years old! I included a group of four for scale.