O-H-I-O....here we are doing our Buckeye cheer in the California Redwoods. While we were out west we took the girls up for a ride on the Avenue of the Giants.
Just when you start thinking your kids are growing up so big you find a picture of them looking tiny in front of a fallen redwood.
The next two pictures below were taken if front of the "Dyerville Giant".
The Dyerville Giant 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 (estimates from two different sources measured it at 370 feet after it fell). That is two feet taller than Niagrara Falls; or comparable to a 30 story building. It is 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference and probably weighs over 1'000'000 pounds.

Fossil records show redwoods grew naturally in many places across the Northern Hemisphere. Due to climatic changes and other factors, Coast Redwoods now only grow naturally in a narrow 40 mile wide and 450 mile long coastal strip from southern Oregon to southern Monterey county in California.

This is kinda cool how the tree seems to be growing in a spiral. Does it make ya dizzy?

Mike told Paige to make a chopping motion...she was not that into it. Now Mike on the other hand is a much more believable actor.

Those big growths on the tree above are burls they do not harm the tree, they are just a mass of cells that have mutated. Mike referred to them as elephant snot...and the kids thought that was cool...so then they had a ball calling out "elephant snot" each time they spotted one.

Redwoods are so immense that they live in three climatic zones at once. The base of each tree is in one set of climatic conditions, the stem is at another and the crown is yet another.

"The redwoods once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always...from them comes silence and awe. The most irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect" - John Steinbeck