Big Trees Trail, Sequoia National Park
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Big Trees Trail
The best short hike in the Giant Forest, around a beautiful meadow ringed with many characterful ancient sequoia. Optional short extension along part of the Hazlewood Nature Trail, into a darker, denser part of the woodland
Length: 0.8 miles, or 1.5 miles including the extension. Plus 0.6 miles if starting from the main parking lot
Elevation change: 40 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Type: Loop
Usage: High
Season: Spring, summer, fall
Trailhead: Pullout along Generals Highway, or the parking lot at Giant Forest
Rating (1-5): ★★★★★
Elevation change: 40 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Type: Loop
Usage: High
Season: Spring, summer, fall
Trailhead: Pullout along Generals Highway, or the parking lot at Giant Forest
Rating (1-5): ★★★★★
Round Meadow is one of the prettiest and most accessible grassy clearings in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park, and is circled by perhaps the best short path in the area, the Big Trees Trail, a 0.7 mile loop around the edge of the grassland, beneath many characterful sequoia, mixed with smaller conifer species.
Although the hike is short, the landscape changes along the way; the east side of the meadow is open, and relatively dry, the trees mingling with big granite boulders, while the west side is shadier, moister, and the trees grow more closely. Typical of the forest, the live sequoia are accompanied by numerous dead, fallen trunks in various stages of decomposition. The meadow itself is boggy, crossed by a tiny stream, Little Deer Creek, and has plentiful wildflowers in the summer.
The surroundings of Round Meadow have undergone significant changes, as this was the original center for visitor activities in the Giant Forest; dozens of cabins and other structures once dotted the hillside just to the east, and a road followed the west edge, curving back east and rejoining the Generals Highway, but all buildings have been removed and the forest once more has a natural appearance, though the place is still usually quite busy.
Several paths link the Round Meadow loop to other hikes, and one worthwhile extension is another short loop just to the south, along part of the Alta Trail and the Hazlewood Nature Trail - again this encounters subtly different scenery, generally more overgrown, though still with an assortment of huge sequoia. If included, the total distance, round trip, is 1.5 miles, this starting from the small pull-out along the highway. If full, the hike has to begin from the main Giant Forest parking lot, 0.3 miles west, but even so both loops can be hiked in under an hour.
Giant Forest area map.
23 views along the Big Trees Trail.
Three short scenes along the Big Trees Trail.
The original Big Trees trailhead was along a little side road just to the south of Round Meadow, once the start of the older road that curved all around the basin, but parking at this place now is for disability drivers only (though possibly open to all in the winter); others have to walk from the Giant Forest parking lot. The alternative start point, the pull-out along the highway, is 0.2 miles east; this has space for only four or five vehicles, so may be full. This is the designated start point for the Hazelwood Nature Trail, on the south side of the road, but can also be used to reach the Big Trees Trail, either by walking west along the road or taking a little connecting path, through a nice group of sequoia then down a slope, once site of the old cabins, and joining the loop by the east edge of the meadow.
The Big Trees Trail is fully paved and accessible. From the south end, the anticlockwise path runs between the grass of the meadow and the trees of the forest, past a sequence of ancient sequoia. Notices gives information about the woodland, and there are plenty of benches on which to sit and enjoy the view. One sequoia has grown right beside a huge boulder, the wood at its base seeming to flow around the edge of the rock. At the north end of the loop, next to the roots of a big fallen tree, the path crosses the stream and moves along the opposite side of the meadow, much shadier, with a greater number of smaller sequoia as well as the larger specimens. Some bigger trees are off-trail a short distance, up the hillside, including a photogenic pair of standing, burnt trunks. A little further is an extra big trunk, of a sequoia that fell in 1992, now broken into several sections, this shortly before the end of the loop..
The optional continuation starts opposite the turn-off for the disability parking area - also paved, initially, up to a junction, then turning left (east) along a path signed 'Alta, Hazelwood', this enters another scenic section of the Giant Forest, with plenty of big healthy trees and quite a few fallen trunks, right through one of them via a sawed passage, then later keeping left at another junction and crossing a more overgrown region, either side of a stream, a tributary of Little Deer Creek. There are several particularly big fallen trees here, up to a third junction, from where the left path very soon reaches the small parking place along the highway, for the Hazelwood Nature Trail.
Although the hike is short, the landscape changes along the way; the east side of the meadow is open, and relatively dry, the trees mingling with big granite boulders, while the west side is shadier, moister, and the trees grow more closely. Typical of the forest, the live sequoia are accompanied by numerous dead, fallen trunks in various stages of decomposition. The meadow itself is boggy, crossed by a tiny stream, Little Deer Creek, and has plentiful wildflowers in the summer.
The surroundings of Round Meadow have undergone significant changes, as this was the original center for visitor activities in the Giant Forest; dozens of cabins and other structures once dotted the hillside just to the east, and a road followed the west edge, curving back east and rejoining the Generals Highway, but all buildings have been removed and the forest once more has a natural appearance, though the place is still usually quite busy.
Several paths link the Round Meadow loop to other hikes, and one worthwhile extension is another short loop just to the south, along part of the Alta Trail and the Hazlewood Nature Trail - again this encounters subtly different scenery, generally more overgrown, though still with an assortment of huge sequoia. If included, the total distance, round trip, is 1.5 miles, this starting from the small pull-out along the highway. If full, the hike has to begin from the main Giant Forest parking lot, 0.3 miles west, but even so both loops can be hiked in under an hour.
Location
Giant Forest area map.
Photographs
23 views along the Big Trees Trail.
Round Meadow Video
Three short scenes along the Big Trees Trail.
Access to the Big Trees Trail
The original Big Trees trailhead was along a little side road just to the south of Round Meadow, once the start of the older road that curved all around the basin, but parking at this place now is for disability drivers only (though possibly open to all in the winter); others have to walk from the Giant Forest parking lot. The alternative start point, the pull-out along the highway, is 0.2 miles east; this has space for only four or five vehicles, so may be full. This is the designated start point for the Hazelwood Nature Trail, on the south side of the road, but can also be used to reach the Big Trees Trail, either by walking west along the road or taking a little connecting path, through a nice group of sequoia then down a slope, once site of the old cabins, and joining the loop by the east edge of the meadow.
The Loop
The Big Trees Trail is fully paved and accessible. From the south end, the anticlockwise path runs between the grass of the meadow and the trees of the forest, past a sequence of ancient sequoia. Notices gives information about the woodland, and there are plenty of benches on which to sit and enjoy the view. One sequoia has grown right beside a huge boulder, the wood at its base seeming to flow around the edge of the rock. At the north end of the loop, next to the roots of a big fallen tree, the path crosses the stream and moves along the opposite side of the meadow, much shadier, with a greater number of smaller sequoia as well as the larger specimens. Some bigger trees are off-trail a short distance, up the hillside, including a photogenic pair of standing, burnt trunks. A little further is an extra big trunk, of a sequoia that fell in 1992, now broken into several sections, this shortly before the end of the loop..
Hazlewood Loop
The optional continuation starts opposite the turn-off for the disability parking area - also paved, initially, up to a junction, then turning left (east) along a path signed 'Alta, Hazelwood', this enters another scenic section of the Giant Forest, with plenty of big healthy trees and quite a few fallen trunks, right through one of them via a sawed passage, then later keeping left at another junction and crossing a more overgrown region, either side of a stream, a tributary of Little Deer Creek. There are several particularly big fallen trees here, up to a third junction, from where the left path very soon reaches the small parking place along the highway, for the Hazelwood Nature Trail.
Topographic Map of the Big Trees Trail
Big Trees Trail - Similar Hikes
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