Sequoia National Park opens Giant Forest that survived fire
TOPSHOT - The base of the General Sherman giant sequoia (C) is covered by insulated structure protection wrap in Giant Forest, on September 30, 2021 in Sequoia National Park, California. (Photo by Eric Paul ZAMORA / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ERIC PAUL ZA
Sequoia National Park will reopen its Giant Forest area on Saturday, three months after a Northern California wildfire prompted extraordinary efforts to protect the grove and destroyed thousands of other redwoods.
The Giant Forest will be open during daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday and after that it will open from Thursdays through Sundays. The grove will go to a seven-day schedule between Christmas and New Year’s if winter weather allows, the park said.
Visitors were warned to bring their own food and water since none is available in the grove.
RELATED: Fire crews wrap California's giant sequoias in aluminum to protect from flames
The Giant Forest includes the General Sherman tree, the largest living thing on earth by volume. The grove had been closed since mid-September, when a fire complex caused by lightning tore through the Sierra Nevada.
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Fire crews took extreme measures to protect the largest and oldest trees in the Giant Forest. They wrapped trunks in a fire-resistant foil, set up sprinklers, raked flammable matter from around the trees and dropped fire-retardant gel onto the tree canopies, some of them 200 feet (60 meters) above ground.
The measures helped save the Giant Forest but they couldn’t be deployed everywhere.
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