Redwoods

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Redwood Tree Trivia. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. A coastal redwood named Hyperion, located in a remote part of the Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California USA, is designated the tallest living tree in the world at 379.1 feet tall.

Where are the redwood trees in California?

The trees in California that people call "redwoods" are actually two distinct species, both of them best described in superlatives like tallest, biggest, most massive, or magnificent.

Sometimes called simply the "big trees," giant sequoias (sequoiadendron giganteum) grow only in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains near the state's eastern border. The most massive living things, they can reach 280 feet tall and 23 feet across. The largest of them rise a little more than 300 feet tall and spread almost 30 feet across. The oldest ones have been around more than 3,000 years.

Coastal redwoods (sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living things on our planet, growing 300 to 350 feet tall and 16 to 18 feet across, with record specimens soaring to 360 feet. That's as tall as a 36-story building. You can find them in redwood forests near the California coast from the northern border down to Big Sur.

Redwood forests are so plentiful in California that you'll find almost a dozen parks with "redwood" in their name, along with a national park and quite a few regional ones. Any of them will give you a glimpse of the magnificent trees and the forests they grow in, but the redwood forests listed below are some of the best places to see them.

Best Places to See California's Redwood Forests

If you want to get the most from your redwood experience, try reading a little bit about the redwood forest before you visit so you can better appreciate it. This list is in order from north to south.

There are also quite a few drive-through redwood trees and tunnel trees in California if you like that kind of thing.

If you like these trees, you may also like the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest off Highway 395 in eastern California, where the oldest specimens have been around for about 5,000 years.

Preserving the Redwood Forests

If you're interested in supporting the preservation of California's redwood forests, check out Save the Redwoods Fund and the Sempervirens Fund.

Drive-Through Redwoods, Tunnel Logs and Scenic Drives

In times past, people often created a tourist attraction by cutting a hole right through the middle of a huge redwood tree. Travelers enjoyed the idea that a tree could be so big that you could drive through it.

A few of those relics of yesteryear still survive:

Hercules Tree in Mountain Home State Forest has a room carved inside but miraculously is still alive. You can walk up steep steps into the middle of it

Tunnel Log at Sequoia National Park is in Giant Forest along the Moro Rock Road. It's a fallen tree with an arched section cut out for the road to pass through. The opening is 17 feet wide and 8 feet high (5.2 m by 2.4 m), with a bypass for taller vehicles. Also in Sequoia is Tharp's Log, a fallen tree that a 19th-century cattleman turned into a house. It's in Giant Forest near Crescent Meadow.

At one time, you could drive through a tunnel tree in Yosemite National Park, but the famous Wawona Tree fell in 1969.

Driving Through the Redwoods

The Avenue Of The Giants runs beside US Hwy 101 from Garberville to Pepperwood. The road is built to curve around the massive trees. It's a pretty drive, but it's also peppered with tourist stops of all kinds, some of them touting the most mundane-sounding features like an Upside-Down Root or an L-Shaped Branch.

Yosemite's Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is the national park's largest redwood grove. It contains about 500 mature trees. You can see some of them from the road and parking area, but it's more fun to get out and walk among them. Most visitors choose a 0.8-mile hike from the parking lot to the Grizzly Giant and California Tunnel Trees, which has about 500 feet of elevation gain.

The grove is located near the south entrance to Yosemite, about an hour's drive south of Yosemite Valley. From November through April, the road to it may be closed because of snow.

On summer days, the small parking area closes periodically when full. To avoid that, you can take the free Wawona-Mariposa Grove shuttle. Yosemite National Park is about a 4-hour drive east of San Francisco.

If your goal is to see the very biggest of the giant sequoia trees, you must go to Sequoia National Park. This one national park contains 18 of the 30 largest specimens of sequoiadendron giganteum in the world.

Sequoia is where you'll find the world's most massive tree, the General Sherman—and the only-slightly-smaller General Grant Tree. Not only are they big, but they're old, too. Scientists estimate they're between 1,800 and 2,700 years old.

The General Sherman Tree might be not only the largest but also the most impressive-looking giant sequoia tree. You'll find it in Giant Forest along with nine more of the 30 largest giant sequoias. The famous drive-through Tunnel Log is also in Giant Forest on Crescent Meadow Road, cut through a fallen tree.

After the snow is cleared in mid to late spring, you can drive on a dirt road to The Redwood Mountain Grove near Grant Village. It's the world's largest grove of giant sequoias.

California Coastal Redwoods in Muir Woods

Many San Francisco visitors who want to see California's "Big Trees" go to Muir Woods. It's a pretty, easily accessible redwood forest, with three well-groomed hiking trails most anyone can manage. Rangers also give frequent guided walks that will help you learn about the redwood forest.

Know this before you go: Muir Woods' trees are coastal redwoods. They're tall, but they're not the massive trees you may be looking for. Muir Woods can also be overcrowded, and at the busiest times, you'll have to take a shuttle bus from Sausalito to get there.

If you're looking for those

What is the tallest tree in California?

The tallest trees in the world are redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), which tower above the ground in California. These trees can easily reach heights of 300 feet (91 meters). Among the redwoods, a tree named Hyperion dwarfs them all. The tree was discovered in 2006, and is 379.7 feet (115.7 m) tall.

Where is the biggest tree in the world?

The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in California's Sequoia National Park. Called General Sherman, the tree is about 52,500 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters) in volume.

What is a sequoia tree?

Sequoia tree. Sequoia is a genus in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing the single living species Sequoia sempervirens. Common names include Coast Redwood and California Redwood.

Where are the giant redwoods located?

Location of the Giant Redwoods. The Giant Redwoods can be found in a narrow strip of coastal California land less than 500 miles long from Big Sur to just north of the Oregon border.

What are redwood trees?

The three redwood subfamily genera are Sequoia Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890 to protect 404,064 acres of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly 13,000 feet, the park contains the highest point in the contiguous Uni... en.wikipedia.org and Sequoiadendron Sequoiadendron Sequoiadendron is a genus of evergreen trees, with two species, only one of which survives to the present... en.wikipedia.org of California and Oregon, United States; and Metasequoia Metasequoia Metasequoia is a fast-growing deciduous tree, and the sole living species, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, is one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. It is native to Lichuan county in Hubei province, China. Although the least tall of the redwoods, it grows to at least 165 feet in height. Local villagers refer to the ori... en.wikipedia.org in China. The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world. These trees can live thousands of years.

What is the tallest tree on Earth?

The coniferous Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest tree species on earth. The heights of the tallest trees in the world have been the subject of considerable dispute and much exaggeration.

What is the worlds largest tree?

The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in California's Sequoia National Park. Called General Sherman, the tree is about 52,500 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters) in volume.

Where is the world's largest Christmas tree located?

Location of the Giant Redwoods. The Giant Redwoods can be found in a narrow strip of coastal California land less than 500 miles long from Big Sur to just north of the Oregon border.

Where are giant sequoia trees?

The President tree is the name of a giant sequoia located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in the United States, east of Visalia, California.

How tall are Sequoia trees?

Giant Sequoia tree. Giant Sequoia is the world's largest tree in terms of total volume. They grow to an average height of 50-85 m (150-280 ft) and 5-7 m (16-23 ft) in diameter. Record trees have been reported to be 93.6 m (307 ft) in height and 8.85 m (29 ft) in diameter

Where are most redwood trees found?

Redwood Trees Redwood trees are the tallest trees in the world. They grow in northern California. The barks of redwoods trees are reddish-brown.

Are there redwoods in Oregon?

The trail is one of only two old-growth redwood groves in Oregon. Compared to the spectacular redwood parks just a 15-minute drive to the south, however, the scenery here is rather underwhelming. By and large the redwoods are strikingly small, and most of the trees are not redwoods. Oregon Redwoods Trail, Siskiyou National Forest Length 1.7 mi · Climbing 280 ft