Redwoods: Grove of Titans ~ aka 'GOT'
This page is an off-shoot of > Largest Coast Redwoods
Copyright 2009 by Mario Vaden
The main redwood page on my site, actually started with part of what is below. If you landed on this page first and have not seen the other, use the link above. The pages overlap.
The largest of coast redwoods include the magnificent Grove of Titans discovered in 1998 by Prof. Steve Sillett & Mr. Michael Taylor near Crescent City.
The location was a fairly substantial secret when I first started looking for that grove. And the location remains unpublished this day as I'm writing this page.
One of the most photogenic is Del Norte Titan in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, emerging behind ferns like an ancient Greek column. Grove of Titans is across the water from the campground, on the west side of the Smith River, near Hiouchi, California.
Image at right: running a tape around Sacagawea, one redwoods in Grove of Titans not often mentioned in articles.
The Grove of Titans redwoods extend through the confluence of valleys among flat, slopes and mounds. The grove is highlighted with bright autumn color from vine maples and bigleaf maple.
For comparison with published trunk diameters, I measured the redwoods after I first located them. Rounded to the foot: Lost Monarch 26', Iluvatar 20', Del Norte Titan 23', Atlas redwood 24'. Some variation from what was published, but expected. Not only is the size interesting, but what grows on these redwoods. For example, Aragorn has a little bit of the epiphyte Oregon Spikemoss, Selaginella oregana, 110' to 120' high on a limb. But El Viejo del Norte is heavily laden with hundreds of pounds of fern mats.
One tree among the largest redwoods in the California Jedediah Smith Redwoods is Stout Tree shown in the albums. But the park has 50 or more redwoods even larger, including Lost Monarch in the Grove of Titans, the largest redwoods as a grove.
Our own search for Grove of Titans entered Jedediah Smith redwoods to the north, where forest debris was so thick our legs plunged through. Spent 6 hours the day we located the grove, exploring a mile deep into dense forest. Could have worn snow shoes. Our feet kept punching holes through centuries of decayed forest like walking on January mountain snow-pack. There was not much poison-oak. I often lead to identify poison-oak.
Although, not far from Grove of Titans on Hiouchi Trail is a poison-oak on steroids nearly 180' tall, like a wood Anacoda. My estimate is 180 years old. It probably germinated when Jedediah Smith first visited the region in the early 1800s.
Regeneration of the species is slow in this area, but it happens. You may have heard that redwoods may not yield many seedlings in some areas. During the winter of 2007, a storm broke a big limb off El Viejo del Norte redwood. Fragments grew sprouts, even up to August 2008. My October visit during heavy rain showed even more growth. I named this Genesis, and am watching development. If these remain alive, the redwoods will be genetic clones of El Viejo del Norte
If anyone wants to find this grove, keep in mind that if exploring is something you enjoy, just keep exploring everywhere near where you think they might be. If you don't find them, you are going to encounter other redwoods so large, you may not even realize the difference I explore so much, I would have crossed throught the Grove of Titans even if I had not set it as a goal to find. When I'm in a park, I like to see as many parts as possible. With Jedediah Smith redwoods, I was already exploring trail by trail, valley by valley even before I heard of Lost Monarch or Del Norte Titan.