Humboldt Redwoods State Park 3-30-13

This is the first salamander I have seen climbing on a redwood tree. The tree was a  51 foot, 7 in cbh monster.

Happy Easter! I drove up to Humboldt redwoods State Park yesterday to do a little more redwood exploring. It turned out to be an outstanding day, one of the best days yet. I started the day looking for an albino described in one of the posts below. After successfully locating it, I made my way back to where I left my redwood search last month. The area continued to be juicy for extremely large redwoods.

cbh 51 feet, 7 in. This is the tree where I saw the salamander in a crevice in the bark about five feet off the ground.

 Once again, I probably walked no more than a quarter mile down the creek. There were so many huge trees here that I spent the whole day in this one particular area. That means I have spent three days in an area probably no more than a half mile wide, and a half mile long. I was excited to read on line this morning that my suspicions were confirmed. The area I was in has world record biomass according to forest researcher Bob Van Pelt. He also wrote that this forest grove has more wood per unit of area than anywhere else on the face of the planet!

cbh 57 feet, 10 in!

 I measured 22 trees with a circumference of over 40 feet yesterday. Four of them had a circumference over 50 feet, and two more were fused redwoods with circumferences over 50 feet! Most definitely a single day record for me.

cbh 54 feet, 10 in!

 Shortly after lunch, I was already beginning to feel pretty exhausted. I didn't want to over do it, especially since this could be the last time I spend time here until after the Continental Divide hike. After that who knows, so the possibility of never seeing this place again also occurred to me. The whistle of the varied thrush once again brought me into the present moment. What a great whistle, even though so simple.

 Once again, I didn't cross paths with anyone all day. I saw one family crossing the creek, but that was it. Before heading home, I stopped by the visitors center to look for some huge stumps across the road.  It was a halfhearted search, I decided to call it a day.

cbh  43 feet, 6 in.

By afternoon, the skies were really beginning to darken, and the comforts of home were calling. By the time I hit highway 101, it started to pour down rain. Once again, another memorable day with the giants...