| I
first entered Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
more than forty years ago—only a moment in the
lifetime of a sequoia tree. Some of the ancient trees
that I walked among then still had a thousand years
to live. I am much older now but the venerable sequoias
show few signs of aging, other than adding several cubic
feet of new growth each year. The trees rise from the
forest floor—as they have for centuries—like
massive living colonnades of layered tissue sheathed
in deeply furrowed bark. I long to see them again, so
I travel to the parks on a memory trip.
Walking
among the sequoias, I feel like a dwarf in the presence
of antiquated monarchs. They prompt me to consider the
brevity of human life and the folly of believing that
people have dominion over wild things. How can I question
the sovereignty of nature when I’m standing in
a gallery of some of her finest works? Nature’s
mastery of form, function, endurance, and beauty is
evident in every fluted cinnamon trunk and bushy crown.
Edward
Abbey said, “The purpose of the giant sequoia
tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.”
His words remind me that small things too are part of
nature’s plan. This place where giants dwell would
be incomplete without the slime mold and the newt. Stone
is crumbled piecemeal by a living veneer of lichen.
A few drops of water trapped in a rocky fissure have
the latent sculpting power of glacial ice. However large
organisms may grow, all spring from a single cell.
—From
“A Place Where Giants Dwell” by George B.
Robinson
A
Place Where Giants Dwell
George B. Robinson
64 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
ISBN 1-58071-052-2
$9.95 
- OTHER TITLES THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
 Sequoia &
Kings Canyon: In The Company of Giants by George B. Robinson
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon Postcard
Book
- Yosemite: A Personal Discovery
by Ardeth Huntington
 Yosemite: Storm of Beauty. Narrated by Lee Stetson
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