Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Road Trip Part 2 – The Magnificent Redwoods!
The Coast Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world and among the oldest living things on earth but you have to see them to believe it. They’re found on a thin strip of land 450 miles long and 25 miles wide, along the Pacific Ocean, from southern Oregon to Central California. On the third day of our road trip we arrived at this magical part of the earth stopping by the Visitor Center in Crescent City before heading to nearby Jedediah Smith State Park.
We started our walk at Simpson Reed Grove entering almost reverently into the presence of the Giants. For no matter how many times I’ve seen the Redwoods, I’m awed just the same. Whatever ails you – in body, mind, or spirit – all melts away as you enter their domain.
We spent the night in Crescent City and continued our journey south the next day, taking the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
We stopped at Big Tree Wayside for a look at the 286 feet high, 23 feet wide Redwood, estimated to be 1,500 years old.
We continued to the Avenue of the Giants through the largest section of Redwoods in Humboldt County.
A handful of tiny communities and hamlets dot the scenic road including this one at Redcrest and we stopped to peruse the shop for souvenirs.
Next up was our final walk of the day at Founders Grove, dedicated to the founders of the Save-the-Redwoods League, started in 1917 inspired by the trees in this grove. Founders Tree stands a whopping 346 feet tall and has a circumference of 40 feet.
We did our best to capture the full panorama of Founders Tree on my phone.
Founders Grove also includes the Dyerville Giant – 370 feet long and 52 feet in circumference – which toppled in 1991. It’s now one of many nursery logs providing water and nutrients for other trees and plants to grow.
According to the Founders Grove brochure, “The greatest accumulation of plant mass ever recorded on earth was a redwood stand in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This temperate rainforest has seven times the biomass (living and dead organic material) of that found in a tropical rainforest “
Wow. And yet of the original 2,000,000 acres, only 5% of original old-growth forest remains. Can you imagine if the entire Redwood forest had been left undisturbed from logging? Thankfully conservation efforts continue.
After a long day we stopped in Garberville for the night, where I had the best ribs I’ve ever had at Cecil’s New Orleans Bistro (get the Asian Cajun Ribs.) I also found a mural describing where we’d been and where we were going.
Indeed, the next day we took the winding road from Leggett to the coast where we found more wonder and beauty which I will save for a future post.
~ Susanne
P.S. Here’s Part 1 if you missed it! Down the Oregon Coast.
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
I love all tress, and though don’t get much bigger or better than your redwoods. They make my 280 year old garden oak tree look like a twig! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
I love all trees too Pete. And so we must enjoy the ones we have closest to us. But I have to admit the Redwoods top them all! 🙂 Pun may be intended. 🙂
What great photos! Simply majestic in every way – what a fun sign as well!
Thanks so much John! I never get tired of going through the Redwoods. They truly are magnificent! 🙂
I know ‘majestic’ is so over used as regards redwoods; but darn it, they really are MAJESTIC, and your photos attest to that. Beautiful, Susanne.
Thanks so much for your comment. 😊Words seemed to fail me too! You feel something profound when you’re in their presence.
It’s a wonderful part of the coast and your great photos of those magnificent trees takes me back to the last time I visited. Many thanks.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed them!😊
I so adore the redwoods 😀
Me too! 🙂
Redwoods are may favorite evergreens, Susanne! I had 5 I planted from seedlings in my house is Sacramento. They weren’t the giant species but they grew 200-300 feet tall and could be seen all over the neighborhood. I do miss them but I now live on the edge of a forest with native yellow pine with wild sunflowers growing in their midst. What a wonderful trip you had. Great pics and I love that long, tall perspective!
Thanks so much! Aren’t they just marvelous? I never get tired of visiting the Redwoods and I would miss them too if I’d had them growing around my house! Here on the west side of the mountains we get some pretty good sized Doug firs, and they’re pretty wonderful too!
Can you still drive through one? I am sure that is not good for the tree, but it was the highlight of the trip with our children.
I believe there are a couple trees left that you can drive though but we didn’t seek them out. Last time we went we checked one out and didn’t see any reason to pay money to do it. Would do it for kids, though! 😊
Oh. They are charging? How obnoxious.
They’re on private land and operate as small businesses. They don’t charge much, we just weren’t interested.
I didn’t realize that they weren’t part of the park.
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