“One Touch of Nature
Makes the Whole World Kin”
William Shakespeare
(Above) Inscription at R.Walter Fey Memorial Grove in The Redwood Forest of Northern California.
The Coast redwoods occupy a narrow strip of land along the Pacific coast with the most southerly grove near Big Sur and the most northerly groves in extreme southwestern Oregon. They usually grow in the low coastal mountains where precipitation from the incoming moisture off the ocean is greater. The tallest and oldest trees are found in deep valleys and gullies, where year-round streams can flow, and fog drip is regular. The oldest known coast redwood is about 2,200 years old and many others in the wild exceed 600 years. Trees over 200 feet are common, and many are over 300 ft . The current tallest tree is the Hyperion tree measuring just over 379 feet tall. One of the largest redwood stumps ever found was 31 ft in diameter in the Oakland Hills east of San Francisco.
The Redwood National and State Parks are a group of several state and national parks located along the coast of northern California and very southern Oregon. Redwood National Park (established 1968) and California’s Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks (dating from the 1920s). The four parks together protect 45% of all remaining coastal redwood old-growth forests. These trees are the tallest, among the oldest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth.
In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than two million acres of the California coast. By 1968 90% of those had been logged to build California, San Francisco and other cities.
After many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began. By the 1920s the work of the Save the Redwoods League resulted in the establishment of Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks among others.
THE REDWOODS ARE A CHALLENGE TO PHOTOGRAPH
COLOUR: Despite the name RED-woods there is not that much actual colour though they are indeed red colored. Muted grayed greens and browns predominate. Muted slightly foggy blue skies too. So I found that black and white worked better to show the textures and the contrast of light and dark. I still have some colour in this blog with the use of some vintage postcard sets of the area that my daughter happened to have with her on this trip.
LIGHT: Unlike the human eye the camera can only average the combination of light. Or it can only gather data on the shadows only OR on the only on the light- to the detriment of the other part of the spectrum usually.
SCALE: Without a human standing nearby it is difficult to photograph the immensity of these trees.
Above– For a sense of scale the trail space between these trees was about 4 feet.
Above -our trusty old Eurovan.
Above- A 1937 Czech Tatra automobile- one of two I saw that were en route to a car show at Pebble Beach.
Above and below -The Smith River at Jedediah Smith State Park
Below Who says they never see Angels?
2019 Oct