RETIREMENT TRIP #7

Hiking in the Shadow of the Giants 

                                                                           When Andy poked his head out the door at 6:15 a.m., Humboldt Bay and the town of Arcata, California, were clear.  By 7:30 a.m., the fog had rolled in.  The highway around the Bay warned, “Headlight Area next five miles.”  We turned them on.  Eureka was bright but fog-covered.  It was low tide.  We wondered how much more the tide would carry in.

A toppled redwood in F.K. Lane Grove illustrates the
immense size and shallow root system of the giants.

Starting at the Southern Entrance to the Avenue of the Giants Scenic Byway, we worked our way north to stay tonight in Fortuna.  Here the hardwoods are starting to turn on the last day of summer.  Yellow already dots the hillsides with splashes of color.The Living Chimney Tree burned out inside in 1914.  That was during World War I!  The interior diameter of the room at the base is 12 feet 6 inches.  And Chimney Tree is still alive!

F.K. Lane Grove trees
average 400-600 years old.

The F.K. Lane Grove was a pleasant half-mile walk among the tall trees.  Here the vegetation on the forest floor was sparse, and the trail was built on a bed of soft pine needles.  This was old growth forest, never logged, with trees 400-600 years old.

Andy read that of the 5% of aboriginal redwood forest that has not been cut, 4.3% is protected by city, county, state or federal government.    Only .7% is in private hands.  That could still be a lot, but just imagine how much has been destroyed!

At Bolling Grove, the stream was a dry creek bed, and redwoods showed numerous burls at the bases of some old growth trees.  Perhaps lack of water had caused stress.

The grove was purchased in 1921 by the Save-the-Redwoods-League and was dedicated to Colonel Raynal Bolling, an officer who was killed during World War I.  Aside from honoring the war veteran, this grove set a theme for the park to “preserve an America worth fighting for.”

Sue climbs on one of the
downed redwoods at F.K. Lane Grove.

In 1928, this grove was combined with other preserve areas to form the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, thus forming the California State Park System.

The Garden Club of America purchased a tract of 5,000 acres to protect redwoods on the other side of the South Fork of the Eel River.  We walked to the river bank but didn’t see a bridge or a trail on the other side.  There wasn’t much water, but it was more than just stepping across on stones.

Burls on this redwood at Bolling Grove
may form into new trees in times of stress.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park exists largely because of a road trip in 1917.  Scientists John C. Merriam, Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn were sent to Humboldt County.  The sight of logged forests inspired them to found the Save-the-Redwoods League (S.R.L.) in 1918.

Humboldt County women joined the cause by founding a local chapter of S.R.L. in 1919.  Their efforts informed and inspired thousands of Americans to protect the giant trees, including Bolling Memorial Grove, the first acres of today’s Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

It would take the wealthiest man in America to save the rest.  In 1926, S.R.L. members invited the Rockefellers to picnic among the giants.


The first limb of the Founders Tree
is more than 190 feet in the air.
Andy marvels at the self pruning ability.

Rockefeller was so impressed that he donated a million dollars to purchase the grove.  The State of California and another million dollar match from Rockefeller took care of the rest.  Today the Rockefeller Forest lies at the heart of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park—the largest old growth redwood forest in the world.

Some of the tallest trees
in the world are in the
Rockefeller Grove.

We walked the Nature Trail, a mile loop through an old grove.  Lots of trees were scarred by fire, and the undergrowth was minimal.

The Nature Trail connected to the Fleishman Trail, a .68-mile walk near the river.  Most striking was the peace and solitude among the giants of nature.  We came back along the road and even then only six cars disturbed the quiet in half a mile.

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One tree in particular had a huge burl.  It made a gorgeous picture, but it wouldn’t fit in one shot.  The adjoining creek bed was bone dry, and there were fire scars nearby—both signs of stress for redwoods.

Driving in toward the river in the California Federation of Women’s Clubs Grove, we found a picnic spot for lunch.  Unlike Rockefeller, I don’t have a million dollars to donate, but lunching under the trees was impressive!

Only this small plaque identifies the
Rockefeller Grove.

In December of 1964, the Founders Grove was flooded under 33 feet of water.  Today it was super dry.  Needles fell like rain, as we walked the .53-mile loop trail.  Lots of huge trees had fallen--even a couple that looked recent.  But the Founders Tree was still magnificent:  346.1 feet high with the first limb starting at 190.4 feet.  Amazing!

Dwarfed by giants, we are awed by
 the smallness of humanity.
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By 1931, John D. Rockefeller Jr. had purchased two tracts—Bull Flat and Dyerville—for two million dollars plus the million from the State of California to protect the redwoods.   Initially he didn’t want it named for the family.  Now it is known as the Rockefeller Grove.  And it contains ten of the 14 tallest trees in the world.  Up above we could hear the wind as we walked the .6-mile loop.  Dry needles rained down gently.  The section isn’t advertised, and it’s located on an obscure, rutted road.  But what a sense of awe and wonder to stroll beneath the giants of the earth.

In the Greig-French-Bell Grove, the
ground cover makes trails stand out.
We couldn't choose which one to take.

Thomas A. Greig, Enoch Percy French and Winifred Brown Bell Trail was a maze of loops in every direction with lots of clover-leaf ground cover.  We intended to hike the whole thing, but without signs or markers, it was very easy to get lost.  We headed back to the car to call it a day—a day of grandeur, that is, along the Avenue of the Giants.