Posted in Northern California Nature January 18, 2017 by

The Largest Trees In America Are Right Here In Northern California And They’re Mystifying

There’s nothing like the coastal redwoods, or Sequoia sempervirens, of Northern California. The Redwood State and National Parks are home to the largest trees on earth, and luckily for us here in Northern California, they are just a short drive away. If this information doesn’t make you love these natural wonders, then you just have to go see them for yourself!

The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are old-growth temperate rainforests located right here along the coast of Northern California.
Wikimedia/ Goldblattster
The first of these parks was established in 1966. The four parks protect 45% of all remaining coast redwood.
Coast Redwoods can tower as high as 379 feet and live as long as 1,200–1,800 years or more.
Flickr/ Kirt Edblom
Pictured here is the Jedediah Smith Redwoods. Named after an explorer and fur trapper who traversed this remote region in the 1820s, this section is the northernmost of the four segments of Redwood National and State Parks, and the only one not including any part of the Pacific Coast.
The dark and densely wooded forests contain large ferns, thick moss, colorful lichens, flowering azeleas and many other plants in addition to the giant redwoods.
Flickr/ Justin Kern
Pictured here is the James Irvine Trail in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
The giant trees can reach up to 29 feet in diameter at their base and are among the oldest living things on the planet.
Wikimedia/ NPS Photo
Throughout the parks, the numerous big trees grow close to the main road and along the park's small network of footpaths, though much of the interior has no trails so is virtually inaccessible, due to the steep terrain and the thick undergrowth.
The rings of the trees that have been chopped down tell its history like wrinkles on a face.
Flickr/ Wally Gobetz
This slice of redwood tree was put on display at Muir Woods, located farther south, in 1930. Careful study of its rings revealed that it had lived 1,021 years.
The area sees a lot of dense fog, which is essential to the health of the trees.
Wikimedia/ Scott Catron
Coastal fog actually provides up to one-third of their annual water needs.
When the light shines through the trees, it's spectacular and you can't imagine a more peaceful sight. Before commercial logging and clearing began by the 1850s, these giant trees covered an estimated 2,100,000 acres along much of coastal Northern California.
Wikimedia/ Richs5812
The stretch of land along the Northern California Coast that is covered by the redwood old growth forests is about 470 miles.
The redwoods overlook the iconic north coast of California.
Wikimedia/ NPS Photo
By the 1920s the work of the Save-the-Redwoods League, founded in 1918 to preserve remaining old-growth redwoods, resulted in the establishment of Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks among others. Redwood National Park was created in 1968, by which time nearly 90% of the original redwood trees had been logged.
Visit the parks and you'll learn about an incredible symbiotic ecosystem.
Wikimedia/ Michael Schweppe
The forest floor, the canopy, and every thing in between is a piece of the complex puzzle.
There's nothing like getting off the grid and slowing it down.
Flickr/ Justin Kern
Pictured here is the Grant Grove.
Regardless of how much time you are able to spend exploring this gem of a national park, you will still want to savor every moment.
Flickr/ Tim Parkinson
The majestic old growth forests are like nothing else you've ever seen.
Flickr/ Justin Kern

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