A new view of some of the world’s oldest trees

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — John Muir, the naturalist who was most at home sleeping outdoors on a bed of pine needles in the Sierra Nevada, called giant sequoias the “noblest of God’s trees.”

For three years, some of the most striking examples of these towering marvels were off limits to visitors in Yosemite National Park. After a $40 million renovation — the largest restoration project in the park’s history — the Mariposa Grove, a collection of around 500 mature giant sequoias, reopened last week.

What Muir called a “forest masterpiece” is now back on display.

The renovation addressed a problem that the park has struggled with for years. On the busiest summer days, more than 7,000 cars may converge on the park. The gridlock they create results in a kind of drive-by naturalism that frustrates many.

In the Mariposa Grove, which is a 45-minute drive from the Yosemite Valley floor, the traffic brought exhaust fumes and engine noise to the foot of some of the world’s oldest living things. Park rangers feared that the asphalt covering the root systems of the trees could damage them.

One of the trees in the grove, the Grizzly Giant, a massive, battered and gangly sequoia, is estimated to be 1,800 years old. Early last week, just a few days before visitors were welcomed back into the grove, a deer was calmly enjoying the shade of the trunk, which measures nearly 100 feet in circumference.

Partly financed with a $20 million gift from the Yosemite Conservancy, a private philanthropic organization, the renovation involved ripping up pavement near the trees where cars and trams would pass and replacing it with walking paths made of packed dirt held together with resin. Visitors are now encouraged to take a free shuttle bus from a new parking lot a 10-minute drive away.