Anniversary Trip Day 5

After breakfast we headed out to drive along the Avenue of the Giants. This is a beautiful drive that winds its way through 31 miles of the old Highway 101 in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
This has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world (meaning they have never been cut down for timber).

We began our drive with a stop at the Eternal Tree House. The main part of the tree was felled in the early 1900's by loggers. A fire from years ago created a huge cavern in the remaining stump which was used first by Indians and later trappers, hunters, travelers and their livestock for shelter.
Now it's a 20 foot room that one can go in and see the marks of time. In 1910 a wood splitter went in and hewed out the inside.

Then we continued on to another grove of trees. I don't think I could ever get tired of walking through all the groves of redwoods and seeing all the different twists and curves and scars of each tree that comes across the path.

I love this picture that Josh took

This is a tree that is still alive today

J.D. took this picture

So magnificent

The trail led to the Dyerville Giant. This tree was once the tallest tree, now it is the longest.

Josh did the math and this tree began to grow roughly 400 years after Christ's death. It fell over in March of 1991 but it still remains. It will take hundreds of years for this giant to decompose back into the forest floor. It was measured at 370 feet tall! Other measurements are 17 feet in diameter and 52 feet in circumference.

Us at the base of the Dyerville Giant

We met a family from Texas here (they took our picture) and they were simply amazed at the sight of these trees. There was a sign posted "No climbing of the Dyerville Giant" but I guess they couldn't resist.

This is the other end of the Giant (or as far as the trail would let you go to its top).

The white speck is the Texan Dad near the base of the tree.

I really wish this picture could do the size of this tree justice.

Running along the trails wore Lily out.

We had to carry her the rest of the trail and back to the car.

We continued down the Avenue of the Giants and briefly pulled over at an Information Center.

I took a couple pictured of this section of a redwood, which is very much smaller than the ones we had seen the past couple of days.

They have marked out points of history on the redwood.

(Dyerville Giant's diameter was 17 feet)

I took pictures of the outside rings first and worked my way in...

After our drive we went back to the house and played outside with the kids and had hot dogs roasted over a fire.