Ever since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by those enormous redwood trees in California. Seeing pictures of cars driving through the trunk of the tree or just seeing teeny tiny people standing next to the tree at the base blows my mind. This is some place that I have to see and experience with my own eyes. I want to be blown away in person.
Those redwood trees have been growing for around 20 million years in several different parks throughout California. They are the tallest living things on earth. I think my first approach in planning a trip to see them would be to research each park where they grow and compare what they have to determine which one would be the best to see.
Parks
There are over a dozen different redwood tree parks. It seems like the most popular in my search is Sequoia National Park which is about mid state. It has the most reviews and almost all five stars. Most parks are closed right now due to neighboring wildfires and hazardous air quality. I couldn’t even imagine those forests burning down. 🙁
Sequoia National Park has a lot of different trails to hike on. It is also home to the tree named the General Sherman. The General Sherman tree is the world’s tallest tree. It’s 275 feet tall! Amazing! I definitely need to see that in person.
The parks listed below also have redwood trees.
- Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
- Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
- Big Basin Redwoods State Park
- Shrine Drive Thru Tree
While researching, I also discovered this interesting place called The Petrified Forest. This forest is home to fossilized redwood trees that are also millions of years old. They were discovered underneath volcanic ash from Mt. Saint Helena. Cool! Well, add that as an additional stop to my list now.
So, you know I’m going to ask that if you have been to any of those above mentioned parks, please share all about it. At least for now I can paint a picture in my mind from your experience until I go. Plus, you may have suggestions on which park really is best or what to do and maybe what you would do differently next time. Also, some “don’t miss” things, too.