The Big Trees of California (Sequoia Washingtoniana) are located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near a central line between the summit peaks and the foot hills of the range, at an average elevation above sea level of about 6,500 feet, and distributed north and south for a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles.

They are found in groups or groves closely associated with other forest trees, mostly Pines and firs, with intervening spaces of greater or less extent between groves. Very rarely is a solitary tree found far away from its kindred groups.

Possibly these trees existed at one time in a great continuous forest, which has been divided into the present separate groves by the great glaciers which eroded the deep canyons on the western face of the mountain range, such as the Tuolumne Canyon, the Yosemite Valley, Kings River Canyon and others.

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