Calaveras Big Trees State Park, Calaveras County

If you like giant redwoods — and who doesn’t like giant redwoods? — these are trees you need to see. They aren’t as famous or as much visited as the arboreal titans of Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove or Sequoia’s General Grant Grove. But here is where giant sequoias first became known to the non-American Indian world. (The local Miwok and Washoe peoples had, of course, known about them for centuries.) Stroll the park’s 1½-mile North Grove Trail, and experience the wonder of these redwoods. If you want to admire even more trees, and find more solitude, take the 8-mile drive to Calaveras’ South Grove. Added to the park in 1954, it holds over a thousand giant sequoias, including the park’s two largest trees, the Agassiz Tree and the Palace Hotel Tree. Calaveras Big Trees State Park lies off Highway 4, about 15 miles northeast of Murphys. (209) 795-3840. www.parks.ca.gov/?page _id=551 A hiker checks out giant sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, where the trees first became known to Europeans.