Big Trees

Leaving Westport Union State Park, we continued north on CA 1, which winds up and over a 2000 foot elevation gain, to US 101.  I'm not going to describe this drive for a couple of reasons.  First, you're probably getting tired of hearing about them.  And, second, I drove the car so it wasn't too bad for me.  Ron isn't talking about his experience in the RV.

We stayed two nights at Richardson RV Park, with our half-price Passport America it was $17.85.  This was a good base for exploring the Avenue of the Giants.

At our first stop, I had Ron stand at the base of one of these giant trees.  When he viewed the picture, he mentioned he was barely visible.  I had to break it to him that he was only there to show size.

See him there in front of the tree on the left?

I almost fell over backwards taking this picture.

It's a good thing we only had the car, although Ron did drive this a few years ago in the RV.

At his insistence, we stopped at the privately-owned Shrine Drive Thru Tree in Myers Flat.

Where he also drove on a downed tree.

I loved these adorable 'tree' houses.

I guess all that was worth the $6 entrance fee.

We stopped at the visitors center where we saw this RV which was hand-hewn from one 22 foot section of a 11 foot diameter redwood.

Charles Kellogg created his 'Travel-Log' to show the world the beauty of the coast redwood.

I just wonder how much it weighs.

We bought a sandwich to share at the little store in Myers Flat and just found a pull-off where we could soak up the atmosphere as we ate.

Our final stop was at Founders Grove where the spotlight is on this tree.

When every tree is huge, it becomes difficult to fully appreciate their size, but this was my thought about the Founders Tree.  If it's 190 feet to the first limb that you can barely see, that means there's still 156 feet to the top which you can't see at all.

There were some fallen giants in this grove.  The Dyerville Giant fell in 1991, causing seismograph readings 10 miles away.  It was once estimated to be the world's tallest living thing at 362 feet.  It is 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference and estimated to weigh a million pounds.

This is not the base of the Dyerville Giant, but a different tree that I could get a picture of.  LOL

Sometimes the trees develop burls.  This one seems to have an abundance of them.

I love these beautiful trees, maybe even more than rocks and barns.