The Giant Redwoods...

I have wanted to see and experience the giant redwoods in person for almost as long as I can remember.  Seeing photos in magazines of cars driving through the hollowed out center of a standing redwood, the acres and acres of redwood trees I saw on TV nature shows as a kid, etc… so this was a bit of a quest for me to take the challenging trip up to northern CA to experience these natural giants…

I will say that when I first stepped into the forest, being in their presence, standing in the midst of a grove of giant redwoods, made me feel a bit sad and that kind of surprised me, but I really wasn’t sure why.  I had taken a road which was called the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt county CA.  I took the self-tour which consisted of 7 or 8 groves of ancient redwood trees scattered over about a 30 mile stretch of winding road.  At the beginning of the trail was a station where you could pick up a pamphlet with information and the location of the groves.

The photos I included below were from one of the groves that was supposed to have one of the highest accumulation of biomass, meaning largely untouched earth, for hundreds of years.  You can’t take pictures of these trees with any success.  It’s just not possible to capture their sheer mass and presence on film…

However, the flora and fauna surrounding these beautiful giants was just as breathtaking.  So many of the shots you will see are of the areas under the trees.  When I first walked into this grove it was quite dark and the ground was very cold and wet, not much light or sunshine seeps in.  When I snapped the first few shots, I noticed that the camera was compensating for the darkness, so what the picture portrayed was not what I was seeing before me and I wanted to capture the area just as it was.  I went back to the van to grab my tripod, i knew that I would have to use longer shutter times to capture the scenes and I couldn’t hold the camera steady enough without some help.  I was captivated by the area, everywhere you looked there were pops of bright green foliage which gave it a very surreal feel in this dark environment. Just nature’s orchestra of contrasts, colors, and extremes, it was magnificent…

What struck me about the redwood groves was their relatively small size.   These were areas that had obviously been preserved for public consumption, but where were the acres and acres of giant redwoods that I remember hearing about as a child?  That night after leaving the area and heading back south I got online to see if I could find out where these forests of giants existed.  I was shocked when I found out that there aren’t many of the ancients left…

Of the over 2 million acres of ancient redwoods that used to be in CA, now there are less than 3% remaining due to logging and agricultural operations…  

OMG…  What have we done…  only 3% remaining of the  2,000,000 acres of these majestic giants…  Now I understood why this was such a sad experience…

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Also, here's a short video of the Richardson Grove, the first place I stopped just before I reached the Avenue of Giants.  As I am driving through, watch for the two large redwoods next to the building at the T in the road.  It really gives you a perspective of just how large these giants are...