The above pic is from Atwell Mill Grove up the Mineral King Valley. Sawtooth peak is in the center.

This last weekend I went to the Atwell Mill Grove for my first trip of the season. It is still early in the year. Snow showed on the ground in the webcam up there, so I rented an SUV to make my trip up to the mountains. Turns out it was a good idea to rent something, because I got most of the way up the Mineral King Road and hit sufficient snow that the car couldn't go any farther. I never did make it as far up the road as my friend John's cabin, where I'd intended to stay. When I reached the point where my tires were spinning and I could not go any farther, I got out and saw that there were only marks from tracked vehicles in the snow on the road, no car tire tracks. Fortunately, since I was already very close to the trailheads I wanted to use, I just decided that was far enough for me.  

I had heard from John last year that in his hikes he had come across a 20-foot-diameter sequoia specimen well away from all of the trails in the grove, and he told me exactly where it was. So I headed there, passing by the Diamond and AD Trees, of course, to just check up on them along the way. I easily found his specimen; it was quite a beast. The tree was huge and was interesting because it had a relatively intact upper side, but a fully burned lower side, from top to bottom. All 223 feet of its height is burned black and missing its bark on the south side of it. A unique example of the durability of a sequoia tree.

Right above it on the slope is another decently large example of the species that is not badly damaged by burns and well covered by greenery on all of its sides, so we'll just call that the Beauty to offset the Beast of a tree located immediately below.

I also measured a significantly hollowed-out sequoia with about a 40-foot-tall hollowed-out burn cavity in it and a pair of decent-sized mature giants in the AD area.

Specs are shown below on some of the trees that I measured in the Atwell Mill Grove:


The Beast
Base circumference:  88' 7"
DBH:  19.2' 
Height:  223' 
Volume:  26,696 Cubic Feet

The Beauty
Base circumference:  68' 4"
DBH:  18.3' 
Height:  253' 
Volume:  18,191 Cubic Feet

AD Area Pair # 1
DBH:  17.32' 
Height:  281' 
Volume:  21,573 Cubic Feet

AD Area Pair # 2
DBH:  17.2' 
Height:  246' 
Volume:  19,414 Cubic Feet

Forty Foot Burn
Base circumference:  75' 8"
DBH:  15.57' 
Height:  198' 
Volume:  11,285 Cubic Feet

Below are some pics of the Beast Tree from both sides.

The Diamond Tree appears to still be in the same condition as the last time I saw it, for those interested in keeping tabs on it. I am glad to see the top of the tree is still green and growing. I hope it remains that way in spite of the fire that has hollowed its base out up to its diamond mark. The first pic below is the Diamond Tree.

Another picture below is of the skyline above Mineral King when I was there. Sawtooth is in the center.  As you can see there is still plenty of snow up in the high elevations.

While I was hiking I came across a recently fallen giant.  It must have just overbalanced due to poor footings and a snow load during the winter.  Note the very red heart wood just recently exposed by the collapse. It will lose the color over time. The scuffs on the trees it hit speak to me about how loud the crash might have been.

I also saw a few other larger trees that I have measured in the area. The first shown below is above the Touchdown Jesus Tree, I am standing at the base of it for perspective. The other two are the ones I measured at just over and under 20k.