Big Trees

[GlueGuy]

These trees are a little south of your mountain property Harv, and this is obviously from a postcard (guess where? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). However, this photo captures better than almost any I've ever seen the immensity of the giant redwood (Sequoia Gigantia).

My wife works up the park as a volunteer every summer, and one of her co-volunteers sent us this postcard the other day. Pretty impressive in my opinion...

The GlueGuy

 

[DaveNH]

Are the trees really that big?
Looks like one of those postcards that you see a man riding a jackrabbit!

Really?

Dave

We're all in this together! (3)
Retired Yuppie Tractor Owner

 

[Harv]

Wow, GlueGuy!

You just triggered a childhood flashback with that picture. On a family vacation we got to experience what really big trees in Northern California look like up close. The second picture below is the 9-in-1 Cathedral Tree up near Klamath. The picture doesn't begin to convey the feeling you get when your inside that thing looking up.

And I didn't see it (it's fallen over now), but then there was the famous Wawona Tree:

 

[ronjhall]

Harv
Isn't there a tree in Sequoia National Park that a car can drive through?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Try this for the oak champ. Wye Oak State Park
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This park gets its name from the Wye Oak. The tree is the largest and finest of its species in the United States. As a protective site for the great Wye Oak, this 27-acre state park honors the champion of all white oaks (Quercus alba) in the United States. This tree is 79 feet high, with a crown measuring 102 feet across, and with a trunk, whose measurements at four feet above ground, is over 31 feet in circumference. Maryland's State Tree, the Wye, is thought to be over 460 years old.

 

[GlueGuy]

Dave

Yes, those trees are real. In fact, the ones in the postcard above aren't even the biggest. Largest (that I know of) is the General Grant tree in Sequoia/Kings Canyon. It is immense; roughly 30-some feet in diameter (near or over a 100' in circumference).

Harv

Yeah. Those trees are all amazing. You walk through those groves, and it is like a religious experience.

Ron

The only "drive-through" tree that I knew of was on the "Avenue of the Giants" in Humbolt County (North California). The one I knew of collapsed. The problem with putting a road through the tree is that it compacts the soil, and kills the roots. These trees consume/dissipate a _lot_ of moisture. They literally generate the weather in the groves.

The GlueGuy

 

[scruffy]

The Drive Thru Tree is located in Leggett, CA., 13 miles south of Piercy, Ca which is the terminus of Humboldt county, and the start of Mendacino county when you are driving south on 101. It is at the junction of U.S. Hwy 1 and 101. It is owned by a friend. I used to live about a mile and a half from it. There is another one located in Myers Flat, approximately 40 miles north of the Humboldt/Mendacino county lines. It is not near as impressive as the one located at Leggett. Leggett area also has the Tree House, and Confusion Hill (actually located about six or seven miles north of Leggett.
Do not be confused by the 'other' tree house located on the Avenue of the Giants (old hwy 101) north of Garberville. The One Log House located (now) in Phillipsville is a stones throw from the house that I spent some high school years living in. It used to be located a stone's throw from my folks house that they bought after I left home...and before it got moved to Phillipsville.

Both drive through trees are still standing, and still tourist traps. As most tourist traps go, I had never been in them per se, except for about 8 or 9 years ago, when family wanted to see them.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by scruffy on 09/11/01 07:07 PM (server time).</FONT></P>