To try to put into words the feelings of awe and wonder of walking among the largest trees on the planet, seems to be an exercise in futility. But one I feel compelled to attempt nonetheless.
Seeing pictures and video clips of these majestic giants really does not do them justice. To truly appreciate the immense size of these towering behemoths, you must see them first hand. You cannot appreciate their girth until you have walked around the base of one. You can't fully grasp the heights to which they reach until you stand at the base of one and crane your neck as you look upwards and see them, as my 7 year old daughter said, "touch the sky".
The awe and wonder you experience seems to me to be most fully expressed with the fullness of a single word, "Wow!"
Along the trail to the largest of these living testaments to God's majesty, the "General Sherman Tree", stands a sign, written upon which is a quotation from John Muir. I can't recall the exact words he used, but I fully understand the sentiment behind them. There is an overwhelming need to be silent in the among these noble monarchs of the forest.To stand there with your hand upon a tree which felt the footsteps of our Lord as he trod the land of Israel, a tree that felt the trembling of the earth when He died upon the cross for the sins of all mankind, fills a person with such awe and wonder at the power of God that words fail him.
As I hiked back to the car, I contemplated these things and as I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed the reddest sunset I have ever seen. And as the rays from that setting sun touched those trees, they glowed with a fiery and yet peaceful redness that confirmed those thoughts in my mind. It was a sunset that was best captured in my wife's words, "it was a wonderful end to a wonderful day."
