The tallest living things, redwood trees (left) can be experienced here alongside the largest North American land mollusk, the Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus) (right).
Left: Licensed Adobe Stock Photo, Right: NPS Photo
Redwood National and State Parks
Many different parks in Northern California celebrate the world's tallest trees. Each park has unique features, but these giants of the forest are found in all of them. One of the parks is Humbolt Redwoods State Park. Here is what National Geographic Traveler had to say about that park in 1994 when they named it one of the top ten state parks in the country.
"The natural architecture of this park dwarfs the human perspective. Over 350 feet high and 1,200 years old, the statuesque Sequoia sempervirens - the coast redwood - ranks as the world's tallest living thing. These red-barked beauties, with their filigreed needles, now survive only in a narrow, 500-mile band along the Pacific Coast. And this park's Rockefeller Forest boasts the largest undisturbed old-growth tract of them on earth."
The purpose of visiting is to try to comprehend the scale of these natural wonders. How do they influence their environment? Do they serve a purpose worth protecting, or should we turn them into backyard decks?