Visit to Redwoods National Park

Since we did 'water' the day before, we headed to land stuff.  Redwood National Park is located right near where we are staying.  Redwood National and State Parks are cooperatively managed by the National Park Service and the California Department of Parks and Recreation. The 3 state parks as well as the national park are a World Heritage Site and an international Biosphere Reserve that protect resources.

The redwood is the world's tallest living tree, a living link to the age of dinosaurs.  The tree can stand taller than the Statue of Liberty, can weigh over 500 tons. The bark is 1 foot thick which makes it immune to fire and insects. In 1800 redwood forests covered over two million areas.  But logging started and by the early 1920's people became alarmed that the redwood was going to be totally eliminated.  In 1968 Congress created the Redwood National Park to protect the world's tallest trees. Today only 5% of that original two million acres remain, but are now protected.

The giant sequoia, which is the same family of the redwood, is located inland in the central part of California, may be shorter but is wider at the base, 40 feet wide.  The cone size of the redwood is a size of a large black olive and the cone size of the sequoia is the size of a chicken egg.  Huh.  Height of the redwood is nearly 380 feet tall and the sequoia's height is to 311 feet tall.

CA state park with most trees

We spent time a number of years ago in Sequoia National Park and were blown away by their size but these redwoods are indescribable.  So so tall.  You have no idea where the top of the tree is.  Just walking through the forest you feel like an ant.  Saw the "big tree", not bad but if you saw General Sherman tree of Sequoia, it's a biggun'.

The redwood trees grow only on the coast, not inland.  The moisture from the ocean fog and the cool temperatures make for ideal growing.  The fog hits the trees, drop moisture on them, which the wetness trickles down to the floor.  Because the coastal mountain range is about 10 miles inland, the fog dissipates by the time it hits the mountains.  The trees typically live to be 2,000 years old.  As air warmed by inland heat passes over the cold nearshore waters, fog forms, typically twice a day in the summer.  I have to say that I had a sore neck the next day, looking up at these bad boys.  Logging is still done, but it is done on private land.  We constantly see large logging trucks moving up and down the coast highway here.  Two wood processing plants are located here in Brookings, one for making plywood and the other for making laminate wood.