President Tree

President Tree is a named giant sequoia in Giant Forest, one of the mature trees along Congress Trail. It's a good reason to keep walking if you're already in the General Sherman area and want more than one famous tree. The House and Senate groups are also on this route.

Congress Trail is a 2.7-mile round trip on a gentle, paved, lollipop-shaped route that begins near General Sherman. President Tree is a stop along the trail, not a roadside pullout. If you want to see the House and Senate groups too, keep going around the loop. The park's accessible-route information describes the approach to General Sherman; it doesn't confirm that every part of the full Congress Trail loop is accessible.

The trunk fills a close-up, so step back enough to include its broad base and the surrounding forest. If someone is already standing on the path, include them for scale; a tight bark shot misses what makes this tree striking.

The President stands 240.9 feet tall and measures 93 feet around at ground level. A published trunk-volume table gives it 45,148 cubic feet, third among the listed trees. When scientists included branch volume in a 2011–12 comparison, the President moved to second behind General Sherman. Those rankings use different measurements, rather than referring to different trees.

The tree was dedicated to Warren G. Harding on August 10, 1923, the day of his funeral. The neighboring House and Senate groups give this stretch of Congress Trail a fitting cluster of civic names.