Trees are huge. It is no surprise to find a tall tree standing in a forest or a park. Especially in a National Park. However, this is no ordinary tree. The world's largest pine tree was just discovered in this U.S. National Park and people can't believe how big it is.
World's Largest Pine Tree
Some people hunt ghosts, and some people hunt trees. A group of these tree hunters discovered the world's largest pine tree this past summer, and it is truly enormous. This gargantuan tree lives in Yosemite National Park and helps protect Tahoe's sugar pines.
While this is not the first time that this pine tree has been discovered, it is the first time that it has been measured. Michael Taylor, one of the tree hunters, shared that he first discovered the tree back in 1981. He was in high school and saw it during a family Christmas holiday. Impressed by its sheer size he decided to go back and look for it again.
He found the impressive tree once more in 2015, but lacked the proper tools to measure the giant tree. Now, in 2024 he got to return with the proper tools and some friends to finally measure the world's largest pine tree. Unofficial Networks shares the following information about the tree's size.
"The diameter at breast height was measured at 8.7 feet and the height at 236 feet."
However, neither of those determine how large a tree truly is. Instead the tree volume, or the amount of wood inside of the tree, determines how large it truly is. The previous tree that held the record for largest pine was "5,450 cubic feet." This giant measured in at "5,761 cubic feet." Making it not only the largest sugar pine tree but also the largest pine tree ever to be measured.