In northern California, the Redwood giants amaze and inspire

Most of us have seen pictures of redwoods, but until you stand next to one of these giants with neck craned, their full grandeur is hard to comprehend. And for passionate lovers of trees like my husband and me, camping and hiking beneath redwoods was the experience of a lifetime.

As we planned our trip, we learned that there are actually three subspecies of redwoods. Giant sequoias grow on the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and are the biggest trees by volume in the world. Dawn redwoods, the stature-challenged underachievers of the redwood clan, were thought to be extinct before being rediscovered in China in 1944 and are now often planted as ornamental trees. But the true giants are the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), which grow only in far northern California and the southwestern tip of Oregon. They are the tallest living things on the planet and the reason we made a 2,000-mile journey to stand in their shadow.

The coast redwoods are protected in a patchwork of parks jointly managed by the California State Parks system and the National Park Service. We chose as our home base the northernmost of the parks, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, having heard that its campground is one of the most scenic in the nation (a richly deserved reputation, we discovered). Located nine miles northeast of Crescent City, the park is named after an early white explorer to the region and is bisected by the Smith River, the longest major free-flowing river in California. Its 10,000 acres contain some of the world’s oldest and tallest redwoods.

I remember our first evening among the redwoods as one of the most magical experiences of my life. The slanting light of the fading day sent shafts of light among the trees, illuminating patches of ferns on the forest floor. After setting up camp, we went for a walk along a nearby nature trail, stopping every few yards to look upward, exclaiming in wonder all the while. “Look at that one!” “Amazing!” “That one’s even bigger!” But gradually we fell silent as we walked slowly amid the giants, paying wordless homage.

Our weeklong stay among the coast redwoods helped us better understand this endangered, primeval landscape. As their name indicates, these trees need to be near the coast so they can absorb water from the frequent fogs that roll in from the Pacific Ocean. But because they don’t like the salt air, they congregate in valleys just a few miles inland, protected by hills that block the sea winds. One writer has compared them to shy cats, though ones that are up to 380 feet tall.

Coast redwoods are among the oldest living organisms in the world. Growing from a seed no bigger than that of a tomato, they can reach heights that rival those of a 37-story skyscraper. Extremely resistant to fire, insects and disease, they routinely live 600 years and some of the old-growth giants are more than 2,000 years old.

Coast redwoods once covered more than 2 million acres in California, but commercial logging of the highly prized wood has claimed more than 95 percent of the virgin forests. The nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, which was founded in 1918, was one of a broad coalition of groups and individuals that worked to protect the remaining forests. Thanks in large part to their efforts, the state redwoods parks were created, followed by the establishment of Redwood National Park in 1968. Together, the national park and three state parks protect 133,000 acres of coast redwoods and are working to replant and restore the logged areas.

While the regrowth initiatives are laudable, as we hiked we could see the dramatic difference between old-growth and secondary-growth forests. The old giants of the forest have a stature and presence that’s different from the younger trees. Many of them are clustered in groups known as groves, almost as if they are part of families. Their intertwined roots help them withstand strong winds and allow them to share nutrients.

One of the most beautiful areas in the region is the Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwood National Park, an area named in honor of the former first lady who had a passion for conservation. We also loved Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith State Park and Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek State Park, whose 30-foot walls are draped with lush greenery. For non-hikers, Howland Hill Road in Jedediah Smith State Park and the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek State Park offer good chances to see old-growth forest from a car.

Temperatures in the redwood forests typically range between 40 and 60 degrees year-round, with rain more frequent in winter. We were fortunate to visit in late May when the rhododendrons were blooming, their purple and pink flowers adding bursts of color to the forest floor. At any time of year, the trees are especially beautiful when they’re wreathed in morning fog, which casts a mysterious veil over the landscape.

As we explored, I was struck by the hush in many of these redwood forests. Because the trees are so tall, they don’t have as much bird life as many forests we’ve hiked. I could see why many people have compared walking in the redwoods to being in a cathedral, only instead of pillars of stone there are pillars of trees, so tall that their tops are hidden from view.

Our necks got tired from looking up, but we didn’t complain. Here in one of the most remarkable landscapes on earth, it was a small price to pay for being immersed in so much beauty.