Northern California: Avenue of the Giants

Coast Redwood. Sequoia Sempervirens. The tallest of all living things on earth, only the Giant Sequoia out bulks it.

The Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park, Northern California is a sublime old forest with trees some 600 years old in places.

A wonderful 30 mile drive and trails to walk. So nice.

Avenue of the Giants: Photographer's Muse

Muse?

Haha.

Under instruction more like it.

Look up.

Look down.

Look there.

Stand near that tree (which one of hundred's, oh that one, ok)

Stand on the road (wait for car to come past).

Lean against that tree.

Please?

Haha.

OK, that's me, I am done

Avenue of the Giants: A Ghost Tree

I read The Golden Spruce (author, John Vaillant) in Alaska during the summer of 2006 and loved the book. 

It is the story of one giant golden spruce, an albino, a world natural wonder, until Grant Hadwin took a chainsaw to it in 1997 and the fascinating, troubling context in which his act took place.

So when I read that one can see albino redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants it was a given that we had to find one. 

They are very rare and this forest only has a handful of albino trees.

An 'albino' redwood is a redwood tree which is unable to produce chlorophyll, and so has waxy, white needles instead of the normal green. 

They survive by tapping into a host tree.

A lead from the visitor centre and lots of back and forth on the road we eventually found the 30' tree, my first ever albino tree. 

Just amazing, I can see why they are called ghost trees, it gleamed in the forest. Mesmerizing. 

It's 'normal' neighbor

Albino Redwood and its huge host looming over it.

Ghost tree 

Completely taken with this tree

Foodie Interlude: daily coffee

Each day, the pleasure of the search for a good cappuccino.
And then finding it in the quaintest of places like this little wooden cabin in Miranda along the Avenue of the Giants in Northern California.