Here’s the thing about redwoods. There is almost nothing more spectacular, and perhaps nothing so hard to capture in pictures.

From Santa Cruz we drove up the coast on CA 1, which by the way is a twisty curvy road with zero cell/internet access. There are spectacular views for the passenger, but for the driver not so much (the driver is glued to the road).

We camped in the Giant Redwoods RV Campground, a campground in Myers Flat, CA. The campground is OK for its purpose (home base while we explored the redwoods), but the area surrounding it is complete sketch.

We visited the Humboldt Redwood State Park that straddles the south fork of the Eel River. This park contains untold beautiful redwood groves that are nothing less than spectacular, even if they are impossible (for me) to capture by photograph.

These trees are hundreds or thousands of years old, although on average the coastal redwoods live an average of 500 to 1,200 years old (the Giant Sequoia’s that live on the western edge of the Sierra Nevada range live up to 3,000 years). These things are so immense that each tree actually lives in three climactic zones (base, stem and crown).

We walked around Founders Grove, and the Dyerville Giant, a 360+ foot tall, 1,600 year old redwood that fell in 1991 that you can walk along its length. That length is two hundred feet taller than Niagara Falls and is comparable to a 30-story building with a 17 foot diameter. It is estimated that it weighs in at over 1,000,000 pounds. Interesting enough, after recent storms and only weeks before we arrived another redwood fell on top of the Dyerville Giant. It is amazing to see splinters from this newly fallen tree that by themselves are the size of small trees. Amazing.

This is a place you need to visit – not depend on posts from others. Well worth the trip!