Avenue of the Giants, Founders Grove

The sun was starting to peek out and warm up the day...

(sorry for the glare on the windshield)

We traveled up the road known as The Avenue of Giants which used to be the old Highway 101; it parallels the new 101and is a very picturesque drive...

Make sure to stop by this sign to get your bearings and maybe take a photo of the map...

It was also an excuse for us to get out of the car to stretch our legs a tiny bit. We just finished checking out Confusion Hill and were continuing northwards...

There are little inlets on the sides of the road so motorists can stop and take photos if he/she fancies it.  I didn't take too many photos since my camera phone doesn't really do these majestic trees justice. We were just marveling at how tall these trees were and how this seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere.

Here's a (blurry) pic of Bert next to a fallen tree we thought to stop near.

This group of trees was known as the  Shrine Cathedral tree.

We made sure to stop at one of the most visited groves in the Avenue of the Giants, Founders Grove. It is right off the freeway and easy to get to. The grove contains hundreds of "old growth redwoods". Thousands of years ago, these types of trees were found all over the earth but now only exist on the west coast of  the U.S. and parts of China.



The Founders Tree is one of the most famous trees in this forest. At 325 feet tall, this tree was once considered the world's tallest tree from 1931-1957. It was named to honor John C. Merriam, madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborne, all of whom established the Save the Redwoods League in 1918.



I kept wanting to see Ewoks pop out of the forest while we were here. It really felt like this could be Endor  though! In reality, the scenes for Endor in Redwood National Park (a different one than this).

The trails are pretty flat and easy to walk through. It was nice and cool in the forest too, and added plus!

There were quite a few trees that had fallen with ferns growing on them.

This particular tree is the Dyerville Giant, measuring 374 feein in length. The tree was discovered in 1966 by a Cal (UC Berkeley) forestry professor and graduate student; it was named after the nearby defunct town of Dyerville. The tree was the national champion coast redwood from 1972  until 1991 when it fell to the forest floor.

This thing was massive!


This was such a cool stop on our road trip!

Who else has been to Founders Grove?
Josh from California Through My Lens has a nice post with many terrific photos:
"Founders Grove", Dec 30, 2014 plus his other post, "Avenue of the Giants - The 31 Mile Redwood Drive you have to do" March 4, 2015 (his photos are so much better than mine)

More info:
avenueofthegiants.net + reviews from yelp & tripadvisor

Seeing this redwood giants was so amazing and awe inspiring. It's a wonder that they are still standing after all of these centuries...