Avenue of the Giants!!

We arrived in Rio Dell, California on October 10. The drive was incredibly beautiful and very scary. Lots of switchbacks going up and down mountains with few shoulders, hauling our 38 foot 5th wheel! It was a 2 person job and thank God Barry was the driver! All that said, we made it safely. The reason we decided to stay in Rio Dell is because it was a 10 minute to drive to “Avenue of the Giants”! Visiting the Redwoods had been on Barry’s bucket list so visiting and exploring Avenue of the Giants was perfect! This world famous 31 mile (50 km) scenic drive is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world.

The Redwoods found along the Avenue of the Giants are “Coast Redwoods” (also called California Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens is the official scientific name), and Coast Redwoods can grow to be more than 360 feet tall. They are the tallest trees in the world! Even though they can grow this tall, their roots grow only 6 to 12 feet deep but spread out as much as 50 feet around the tree. We have many incredible pictures to give you some great perspectives; however, pictures cannot even begin to show the grandeur!

Our time was mainly spent driving the auto tour of Avenue of the Giants. The auto tour consisted of 8 stops along the Avenue. Most of these stops had nature trails or shorter hikes (Groves), and we did them all! There were also stops in areas where towns used to be but were destroyed by floods or fires, like the town of Weott that was destroyed during a 1964 flood. In this picture, Barry is standing at the pole which shows where the water crested (33 feet) above the street.

Speaking of fires, one of the craziest things we seen were Redwood trees that were hollowed out by fires but still alive! Redwoods have incredible adaptations to help them survive fire. Their unique bark protects them from insects and fires. Mature trees can have bark up to one foot thick. Redwoods can even survive fires that burn through their bark and into their inner heartwood. This creates caves, called goosepens, which provide a home for wildlife. You can see Barry and I standing in these caves or goosepens throughout the pics under the photos tab.

One of the cool things we get to experience while on this journey is meeting some awesome people and sharing stories! We have been blown away with how many couples are doing what we’re doing! It’s so much fun exchanging travel stories. This time while were hiking the Drury-Chaney Grove we met Michiel Desmet and Chiara Maffina who have a youtube channel “VID Expedition”. Michiel is recovering from a spinal injury which left his legs paralyzed since 2013. Michiel and his girlfriend Chiara were setting a new world record for the longest handbike drive ever while raising awareness of the strength that lies within people with disabilities. Michiel handbiked with Chiara’s support on her bike from Alaska to California! They had already broken the world record of 6500 km or 4038 miles and were setting their own when we met them. Such inspiration!

Since we were so close, we had to go to the Myer’s Flat Shrine Drive Thru Tree to see for ourselves if you could actually drive through the tree! We were skeptical! Very, very small cars can drive through it! You can see not all made it unscathed! It was fun to see but was very touristy-gimmicky…but that’s okay! Had to go!!

The last “Grove” we explored was “Founders Grove”. It was so interesting to learn about these ancient forests and how they not only survive fires, floods, etc., but how they thrive and we could see specific examples. This picture is a perfect example of how the trees and plants are recycled to the living forest, basically feeding itself and wasting nothing. We knew this generally, but to see it in this way was really amazing.

The picture below is of the Dyerville Giant. It had been standing for as along as 1,600 years and was taller, larger and older than any other tree around it. It was recognized as a “champion” Coast Redwood as certified by the American Foresters Association until it fell on March 24, 1991. Before it fell, it was at least 362 feet tall. That’s 200 feet taller than Niagara Falls! It is 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference and probably weights over 1,000,000 pounds!

Overall, our time in the Redwoods was awesome! Every day we are blown away with how fortunate we are to see what we see, learn what we learn and experience what we’re experiencing. Life is good!!! On to Fort Bragg for a week by the ocean!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the pics from the Redwoods by clicking this link.