Leaving the parking lot and crossing a bridge over Beaver Creek, the trail begins a moderate, fairly steady 1.5-mile ascent, gaining 260 feet in elevation, to the point where it forms a loop.
Staying to the right, the loop passes over Big Trees Creek. Halfway around the mile-long loop, which climbs another 200 feet before gently dropping to rejoin the main trail, a side trail leads to the Upper Grove.
At the trail’s end, just over half a mile from the apex of the South Grove Trail loop, one finds the Agassiz Tree. The Agassiz Tree – among the 10 largest of the Sierra redwoods, and the largest of the Calaveras big trees – is 25 feet in diameter 6 feet above the ground and 250 feet tall.
The 5-mile roundtrip, allowing for “breathers,” viewing and wonderment, takes about three hours.
Other specimens of giant sequoia found along the route include the “Palace Hotel,” named after an elegant, newly-opened San Francisco by early visitors who viewed the large opening at the tree’s bottom.
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