Avenue of the Giants of California - Safari Arie

In northern California there is a 31 mile section of old Highway 101 where the tallest trees in the world grow. These trees are called California Coast Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens) and this place is called the Avenue of the Giants. Of all of the places that I have visited in the US (and there are a lot of places) Avenue of the Giants will remain a lifetime favorite. Few places will have you appreciate nature and the need to conserve all natural living things and places as much this place.

To place your hand on a trunk of one of these mighty trees and to look up as far as you can look up. What a privilege and an act of transporting yourself to a time before time. As a human being, how is it even possible to comprehend, to touch and look upon something that was but a seedling when Jesus Christ was born a little over 2,000 years ago?

The tallest Redwood is current 379 feet tall and believed to be 700-800 years old. A Coast Redwood tree can grow 100 ft in it’s first 50 years. Avenue of the Giants is the best display of the trees as part of 51,222 acres of Redwood groves found in a 500 mile Redwood belt.

Between December 5^th and 6^th, 2020 I was able to visit this amazing stretch of forest. On the evening of the 5^th, I camped inside the park at the Burlington Campground. During my visit I actually took over 347 photos inside the park.

Campsite at Burlington Campground

Some more interesting facts about Redwoods

There are 3 types – Coast Redwoods, Giant Redwoods and Dawn Redwoods (China).
Redwoods are the tallest trees at 360 feet high and can live 2,200 years long.
The trunks diameter can be 10 to 20 feet.
The roots of a 360 foot tree only grow between 6 to 12 feet deep but they do spread out as far as 50 feet.
The tree bark can grow up to a foot thick. This thickness protects the trees from fire and insects.
The first Redwood forests appeared around 65 million years ago – about the same time that dinosaurs became extinct.