Girls vs Tree

Have you ever wondered how the world would be if you were a Hobbit?  I suppose if you are 5’2” no, that thought does not cross your mind. But when you are 5’10” or greater finding things larger than you do not happen often. But I found a world that was much larger than me.

Trees that I could use as a house, stand up inside, walk through, were large enough to use as a bed.  The redwoods offer many amazing perspectives. You can stand inside them, drive through them, be in a ring of them and feel as though you were protected by an escort of well-trained efficient armed guards. It is like they know things; happy things. They are not gloomy or frightening; there is a feeling of joy, of praise, of pride in their assignment in this world. You can believe that they have met and remember The Creator. 

As we were roaming around the Chandelier Tree in Humboldt a couple of girls in a tiny convertible drove into the park whirled around the tree and parked in front of it. One girl got out and guided the other into the tree. She then lifted up her phone and started snapping photos. They were laughing and having a grand time. Then the other girl wanted to get out and take photos of her friend in the car in the tree.  But, the girl in the car could not get out. The door would not open. She turns the car off and attempts to climb over the windshield and across the hood to get out. Well this as you can imagine was not going as smoothly as she had envisioned it in her mind. She tried to get one leg over the windshield and then the other leg while trying to keep her balance with nothing to hold onto. This course of action went on for a few moments and then once she got her footing the hood of the little car bowed under the slight pressure of her weight. She realized she could not put her full weight on the hood and get out. Now while all this was funny her friend standing in front of the car curled up laughing hysterically was even funnier. The girl in the car now had one leg over the windshield and one in the car and was stuck. Her friend could not get to her to aid her and they were so drunk on laughter neither of them could do anything. We left them to their joy.

Back to the redwoods…..  There is a team of researchers who travel through the redwood forests in search of the tallest trees. So far they have found 135 trees topping out at a wee bit over 350 feet tall, the tallest at 378.1 feet tall.  A football field measures from goal line to goal line 300 feet.

 Here are a few interesting facts you may not know if you have never seen them.

Coastal Redwoods can survive to be 2,200 years old.

Redwoods do not have a tap root. They have an intricate shallow root system that allows them to better support themselves. These roots may be only 5 or 6 feet underground but have a stretch of over 100 feet from the tree. The roots of 4 or 5 trees may intertwine and often fuse together giving greater strength to the group.

Redwoods are not as round in diameter as sequoias but, they are taller.

Redwoods do not live as long as the great sequoias.

The Spanish first called these trees Palo Colorado meaning red tree.

The seed of a redwood is about the size of the head of a pin and you will need to gather about 125,000 before you will have a pound of seed.

A redwood requires hundreds of gallons of water each day.  How does this happen you wonder? Redwoods can create their own rain from the fog that is present daily in the northwestern coastal region. The taller trees producing the most rain which drops to its shallow root system.  

You must see these beautiful trees some day.