1 Hendy Woods

Hendy Woods is about 125 miles north of San Francisco. Do a rest stop in Cloverdale, the driving west on Route 128 is windy and slow for a while, but then things level out when the scenic Anderson Valley is reached. Hendy Woods is small but has some big and tall redwoods, a few above 340 feet in height. The loop trails are easy level hiking.

2 Montgomery Woods Reserve

Montgomery Woods is 30 winding miles north of Hendy Woods. This is a pretty famous redwood park. It has a couple trees that are in the top 20 in height among all redwoods. There is a short hike from the parking lot to the grove that has a pretty good elevation change but is very doable if a measured pace is followed. The trail is very nice, looping around both sides of the grove and allowing hikers to walk right among the tall trees.

Montgomery Woods Reserve natural earthen dam

3 Richardson Grove

Richardson Grove is about 100 miles north of Montgomery Woods. The short drive through this grove along 101 is spectacular. Slow down and enjoy it. The tallest redwoods in the park are at the visitor center and are about 340 feet in height, but there are a bunch of big and tall redwoods right along 101.

Richardson Grove visitor center deck trees

Richardson Grove tall redwoods at visitor center

4 Humboldt Redwoods

The heart of Humboldt Redwoods is about 40 miles north of Richardson Grove. The Founders Grove and nearby Rockefeller Loop have very nice mostly level trails, with a number of trees over 360 feet tall.

Humboldt Redwoods chaos at Dyerville Giant

5 Redwood National Park

Redwood National Park is about 100 miles north of Humboldt Redwoods. The tallest trees in the world grow in the remote Redwood Creek Valley and are 380 feet tall. However if you want to drive deep into a big redwood forest with easy hiking do the Lost Man Trail. There are big trees in Lost Man as well as a few over 350 feet tall. Another good Redwood National Park trail near Klamath is up Flint Ridge, it is well constructed and the climb is scenic and gradual.

6 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Prairie Creek Redwoods is just north of Redwood National Park and has many trails through fine redwood forests. The great trail network starts at the visitor center and there are also a lot of trails accessible along Drury Parkway and Cal Barrel Road. Lots of the largest (by volume) redwood trees are in Prairie Creek. The trails near Prairie Creek are relatively flat and then there are some trails going up the hillsides that have nice gradual ascents.

Prairie Creek Redwoods near visitor center

7 Del Norte Redwoods State Park

The heart of Del Norte Redwoods is about 20 miles north of Prairie Creek Redwoods. There are few trails and they are pretty steep. The section of the Damnation Creek trail from 101 to the old Coastal Highway is steep but not very long, the climb out is not a problem. The old Coastal trail at the Damnation creek intersection is very scenic and follows the outline of a big canyon.

8 Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Jedediah Smith Redwoods is about 15 miles north of Del Norte Redwoods. The Boy Scout trail goes from the east to west end of the park. It has a couple small hills and is about a five mile hike out and back. It is well worth the time and effort, don’t make a race of it and keep your eyes open for many big redwoods, some right along the trail.

Jedediah Smith Redwoods Boy Scout trail eastern section

Jedediah Smith Redwoods Boy Scout trail western section

Jedediah Smith Redwoods Boy Scout trail western end

Thanks for reading.

1 Redwood Thunder

Redwood thunder is an uncommon but not rare event. It occurs when a large redwood tree falls to the forest floor, sometimes striking and taking other redwoods, firs, spruce, oaks, and maples with it. A cubic foot of redwood weighs 50 pounds, so if a moderately large 20,000 cubic foot redwood topples that is a million pounds, or 500 tons of wood crashing to the earth.

For redwood thunder to occur usually soaked soil and wind are required, though if the tree fractures on itself soaked soil is not an ingredient. Sometimes before redwood thunder occurs the tree will lean against an adjacent tree, with the trunks and branches rubbing with the wind and making screeching sounds like giant stringed instruments.

All redwood trees eventually topple, or at least break off down to a low point on the trunk. If a given old growth redwood has a one in a thousand chance of falling in any given year than that means, based on acres of old growth redwoods, the average annual tree fall count in the large redwood parks is about 300 trees, per park.

If there are multiple trees involved in a tree fall or if the tree falls across a creek, the tree fall is noticeable in Google Earth. If you hike the same trails over several years you will for sure see trees that have recently fallen. Their upper trunks are huge and their logs run sometimes more than a football field along the forest floor.

2 Examples of Tree Falls

Here are several examples of tree falls I ran across in 2016. Included are a picture I took of the tree fall accompanied by before and after Google Earth views of the tree fall areas (using Google Earth historical imagery).

In Humboldt redwoods a neighbor of the big Dyerville Giant log fell in the late spring 2016. Its trunk shattered and splintered into sections where it struck the Dyerville Giant log.

Tree fall across Dyerville Giant in Founders Grove

Founders Grove - tree to fall marked with X. (Image from Google Earth) — Founders Grove – tree to fall marked with X. (Image from Google Earth)

Founders Grove - space left by fallen tree marked by X. (image from Google Earth) — Founders Grove – space left by fallen tree marked by X. (Image from Google Earth)

Another recent tree fall in Humboldt was in the area where a seasonal foot bridge is put in to link the Rockefeller Redwood area to the Giant Tree area on either side of Bull Creek in the upper Bull Creek Flats. The new big log is used a lot to cross the creek, though it would be a pretty tough eight foot or so fall from the log to the rocky creek bottom if your foot or the bark slipped.

Log across Bull Creek in Giant Tree area

Bull Creek Giant Tree area - tree to fall marked with X. (Image from Google Earth) — Bull Creek Giant Tree area – tree to fall marked with X. (Image from Google Earth)

Bull Creek Giant Tree area, empty area where fallen tree was standing marked with X (Image from Google Earth)

A third fall in Humboldt occurred in Harper Flat. The tall north side of a twin trunk redwood fell in the last couple years.

Harper Flat fallen tree, north side of pair (still from I Phone video)

Harper Flat - tree to fall marked with X (Image from Google Earth) — Harper Flat – tree to fall marked with X (Image from Google Earth)

Harper Flat - area left by fallen tree marked by X (Image from Google Earth) — Harper Flat – area left by fallen tree marked by X (Image from Google Earth)

The final example is in an area of tall hillside redwoods on the east side of Redwood Creek a little north of McArthur creek near the seasonal foot bridge. Here the tree fall took out a number of redwoods and the whole group of fallen trees is slowly sliding down toward Redwood Creek.

Redwood Creek tree fall area, trees are slowly sliding downhill.

Redwood Creek hillside above north seasonal foot bridge, trees to fall marked with X (Image from Google Earth) — Redwood Creek east hillside above north seasonal foot bridge, trees to fall marked with X (Image from Google Earth)

Redwood Creek east hillside above north seasonal foot bridge, area where trees stood marked with X (Image from Google Earth)

3 What Can Be Learned From Fallen Redwoods

A recently fallen redwood is a great opportunity for whole tree research once the soil in the fall area has stabilized. The root system and affixed soils can be studied without any digging, this is the big primary benefit. But also core samples can be extracted without having to climb and core living trees. The canopy structure can be measured and reviewed without climbing and an unlimited amount of destructive sampling can be done.