Where would you find a Red Giant?

You would find a Red Giant on the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in North America. It is a huge redwood tree, called a giant sequoia. These trees, members of the conifer family, are the largest in the world and grow to a height of 300 feet. They have a very hard, reddish brown wood and a thick, very rough bark. The giant sequoias were believed to be the oldest living things in the world. The ring marks on the stumps of the oldest trunks have been carefully counted and it is now known that some of the biggest are about 4,000 years old.

Many of these trees were cut down for their timber, which is resistant to attacks by fungus, and termites and other insects. To preserve the remaining groves of these huge redwoods, a reservation called the Sequoia National Park was set up in 1890. The largest tree there is 272 feet high and has a circumference at the base of its trunk of 101 feet. Its weight has been estimated to be over 6,000 tons.

Some of the other trees are taller but do not have such large trunks. A tunnel has been but through the base of one of these giant trees which is big enough to drive a car through.