Grove of Titans in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Updates, location, and stuff you may not hear elsewhere

by Mario Vaden, Certified Arborist & Photographer

NOW OPEN - GROVE OF TITANS & MILL CREEK TRAIL

In 2020, I added photos of the boardwalk and restrooms showing some destructive practices during construction including park crews working over wet soil (roots) in the winter. Lots of photos taken over the years are included. Find unfiltered insight about that at: Grove of Titans Goes Heavy Metal

This page is about a group of coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) called the Grove of Titans discovered 1998 by Michael Taylor and Steve Sillett. Between 2008 and 2021, larger and wider redwoods were discovered elsewhere so this grove no longer has the biggest Sequoia sempervirens, but they are huge (read Year of Discovery). A remote extension of the grove also holds a certain world record on a discreet hillside. In 2017, news stories plus signs in the parks erased secrecy so I added directions below and a narrative about history, hidden cameras, news, wear and fund raising. This explains why discoverers kept the location secret in 1998. By 2017 the grove was plastered nationally on CBS News, tripling wear. For map & directions scroll past the first images. Mill Creek trail was closed but is open again. To people who gave money, this page reveals what news coverage omitted to tell you (see bridge photos). Prior to construction I posted video to educate visitors about the parks leading people astray on some points to get their money. View here: Grove of Titans Video

Continue reading after image: The coast redwood below is the 1998 discovery Lost Monarch in Grove of Titans. When this photo was taken 2013, needles on the ground were deep enough to photograph like this without impact. For scale is a local woman who used to work on trail crews in these parks.

 

A fund raising effort for 1.5 to 3 million dollars began 2017. My own 38 years of parks, university campus and arborist work suggested that waste was certain. But even though the project had plenty of "pork" spending, most donations were gifts and the area needed a form of improvement to constrain random movement. Our own $1000 donation was the first given to Grove of Titans toward signage and preservation with a lion's share from Mark Graham (copy of letter & check at end of this page)

The grove location was available way back in 2001 from Van Pelt's Forest Giants book but few people connected dots. The Grove of Titans remained obscure until 2010 when a man from from Medford, his sister, and brother-in-law, located the spot, then posted a blog to spread the whereabouts - not the GPS, but a verbal narrative map. Like clockwork, worn ground appeared and according to an HSU study, 8000 sq. ft. of plants vanished. The report exaggerated slightly by including pre-existing paths, but plenty wore bare.

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During the first news cycles to raise money, the parks and writers pointed to social media as cause of wear, cloaking the fact that park staff and news in tandem prompted the worst degree of wear. The parks' pockets filled while patches of earth emptied. Such a strange marriage of events !! The damage surged in waves with each news story writers published, relaying the park staff story. CBS news triggered the heaviest wear of all. A lack of proper editing spread damage like sparks from a fire being beaten with a stick.

Related to that money drive, I added a bridge repair delay shown down this page, plus a video about a deck build in Stout Grove (Stout Grove Deck Video ). The photos and video should teach people how the parks can waste money while asking for money. This is a discussion to help others prioritize future donations.

Now, back to this Grove of Titans. When the location became heavily publicized the "Quest" vanished. A good number of people used to enjoy a "treasure hunt" locating the Grove of Titans. One person described searching from scratch like a quest in the game Zelda Ocarina of Time. That experience has vanished.

About the Grove of Titans coast redwoods

Image: for comparison and scale here's Arianna next to a more recent and larger 2014 discovery. You can navigate to its page for a bigger photo. See The Big Kahuna. In May 2020, I also posted another video for this redwood and standing for photos. The dimensions of these coast redwoods demonstrates why (read) Coast Redwood is the real giant Sequoia

A chapter called Day of Discovery in Richard Preston's book (2007) )is where many people first learned about the Grove of Titans. The single chapter may be online at Orion. Try Day of Discovery. The adventure began with Taylor and Sillett bushwhacking up Clarks Creek on the opposite side of Jedediah Smith park.

They entered the redwood forest along Hy. 199 and followed a fork up to New Hope Grove where they found the tallest redwood in the park. Then crossed south through the heart of the park in a single day all the way south to the Grove of Titans near Mill Creek.

They had never seen the grove before, and that's when they discovered it. Other random wanderers had seen the redwoods before, without realizing the significance for the size or measurements.

The Grove of Titans redwoods best-known are these five:

Del Norte Titan
Lost Monarch
El Viejo del Norte
Screaming Titans
Chesty Puller.

I updated Screaming Titans page with before and after photos to convey damage from human impact within Grove of Titans. The photos on that page are from the same folder as images sent to the parks to use for signs.

SCROLL PAST NEXT IMAGE FOR MAP & DIRECTIONS

 

Image: evident from this photo, the funded trail project appears to cause even more loss of vegetation. More is at the BLOG post about it. Read > Grove of Titans Goes Heavy Metal

 

Directions and Map

GROVE OPEN 2021

The grove is along Mill Creek Trail in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. GPS is pointless. It takes directions. The shortest route to Grove of Titans is using Mill Creek trail where it meets Howland Hill Rd. about 1.5 miles southwest of Stout Grove. There is a concrete bridge where Howland Hill Rd. crosses Mill Creek. Park in one of the turnouts and find the trail about 500 feet west of that bridge. You can't miss the area, because a new restroom was built.

Mill Creek trailhead is next to the road there, and goes north up into the wooded hill. After 15 minutes the trail drops down to a clearing close to Mill Creek among a grassy marsh. As soon as you reach this open area and river you are at the edge of the Grove of Titans. Most of the big redwoods are on on the north side of Mill Creek trail. But once the boardwalk is built, the new route should be obvious. All you need to to find the trail across from the restroom. Not the Boyscout Tree trail restroom but the other, moments away, across from Mill Creek trail. The following photos and notes should clarify:

 

1. Take Howland Hill Rd. and enter a WEST GATE on the Crescent City side of the park and go east. These trunks are the first large redwoods you see immediately after entering the park gate. Drive for a while and go a few minutes PAST the Boyscout Tree trail area.

 

2. Proceed past Boyscout Tree trail area and look for a Mill Creek trail sign off to the left. The sign is tucked back from the road, but in view about half way through the park.

 

3. Hike up through a forested hillside for 15 minutes or so. The first 15 minutes is forest with mostly coast redwood and Douglas fir. The clearing later will be evident after you descend and pass fallen logs. We will find large maples with moss and a draping plant called Oregon Spikemoss or Selaginella with strands. The boardwalk may take an alternate path after construction and bypass the edge of Mill Creek.

 

4. Down in the clearing, social paths will be displaced by the boardwalk and new path.The photo below shows Chesty Puller coast redwood with part of Lost Monarch the dark trunk in the background. From this view El Viejo del Norte is also in the background left of Lost Monarch. The space in between is a grassy, shrubby marsh.

 

5. Map to Grove of Titans for 2019 into 2020, This will change as the new elevated trail is added. This covers most everything. An unmarked redwood named Sacagawea is in the general grove area, and remote outliers are in remote parts where no marked trail will exist.

 

News and Publicity

If you were planning to find the Grove of Titans and landed on this page, realize this page does not compromise anything. The location was plastered all over the place. But better if people read here first, because more is available about its history and real facts.

A lot of vegetation was destroyed (Screaming Titans). The Grove of Titans was widely publicized by Richard Preston's book sold in park visitor centers (The Wild Trees Book Review). The book was the greatest factor leading to heavy impact. Preston could not have imagined the change when he wrote his book. Some years bak, Redwood Parks Conservancy wrote:

"When the grove was discovered in the late '90s, it was nearly inaccessible, surrounded by thick under-story with no direct trail access. As knowledge of the grove began to spread, mainly via websites touting the locations of the trees, visitors began to venture off-trail to find this hidden treasure"

That's not how the situation evolved. Knowledge spread from the book more than anything and the grove was directly accessible by trail for decades. Social media came into play afterward, greatly amplified by news stories and park affiliates.

Continue reading below these local ads:

 

(707) 464 - 2137 at 701 Hy. 101 S. Crescent City, CA 95531.

(707) 465 - 3474 at 700 US-101, Crescent City, CA 95531

 

February 2017, the Statesman Journal published comments from head ranger Brett Silver and scientist Steve Sillett about a possible $1,000,000 boardwalk and trail. In March 2017, Del Norte Triplicate quoted the ranger that Grove of Titans is the "worst kept secret" in Jedediah Smith park, noting surveillance cameras used to capture 22,000 images. All the articles remained on script. Each retained bits of accuracy, without a comprehensive story.

 

Image: Screaming Titans several years after foot traffic increased. The collapsed stems and wood show disintegration similar to what I described on the El Viejo del Norte page. These groves experience breakage. This is why danger will increase by drawing more visitors directly beneath these huge redwoods.

 

Preston's book about redwoods, big tree hunters and research climbers is a great way to get more insight. Select the image if you want to order a copy.

The Grove of Titans coast redwoods in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park boils down to a handful of large coast redwoods. The grove was claimed by some people to have the 1st, 4th and 5th largest coast redwoods. But lluvatar of Prairie Creek and Fusion Giant of Redwood National Park were bigger. Iluvatar was the redwood on the cover of 2009 National Geographic.

Screaming Titans is really two redwoods that grew into each other. The age is probably 1/2 what people expect. If Del Norte Titan is 2300 years old as estimated, Screaming Titans could be more like 1700 years. From my main redwood page menu, navigate to pages for each of 15 largest coast redwoods and many other. Chesty Puller and Screaming Titans are not among the 15 largest but in the menu awesome and big.

 

Image: this is the oldest photo I have of Lost Monarch showing the area 2008. There wasn't a trace of human activity. Just a thick layer of needles, branches and small plants all around. The coast redwood Chesty Puller is across in the background.

 

 

It's intriguing how the handful of largest redwoods in this grove appear of similar age. What prompted their genesis? Why are there not more? Were there more?

The terrain experienced a dramatic change which probably occured before the titans germinated. But there is a grassy marsh in the midst that is void of large evergreens. The Ruthlor Gulch creek probably passed through the marsh centuries ago. Dr. Steve Sillett expressed a guess that a landslide may have changed the valley. Ruthlor Gulch creek is the one that flows past Screaming Titans down toward Mill Creek.

There is a big mound from a presumed ancient landslide that diverted the brook. Near Screaming Titans is a strange trench that looks hand-dug, a long open void. Maybe a log got pressed into the ground and decayed.

These large coast redwoods were discovered in 1998 by Steve Sillett & Michael Taylor during the "toughest bushwhack ever". Sillett and Taylor entered Jedediah Smith redwoods along Hy. 199 and followed Clark's Creek up into the hills, following valleys and brooks for an entire day.

Clarks Creek is the one that crosses Walker Rd. near Simpson Reed trail. Their zig-zag bushwhack was about 3 miles combined. Along the route they passed a previous coast redwood discovery called New Hope and another called Neptune - the northern extent of the Grove of Titans. They also found a huge Douglas fir named Ol' Jed up "Ruthor Gulch". There is another extraordinary record find there too.

Image: peering over sword ferns with Del Norte Titan in view.

The redwoods in this grove have diameters approaching 26 feet and heights exceeding 320 feet. These are so big, their own girth can hide their size when standing close.

Some of these have hundreds of pounds of canopy soil, fern mat and epiphytes. But that is not exclusive to this grove. If you hike trails in the parks and look overhead, you can spot epiphyte ferns in most of the coast redwood parks.

Several redwoods in Grove of Titans are wider than the Stout redwood across the Smith River from Jedediah Smith campground. The Stout Redwood is about 16' wide, which is much less than the Lost Monarch.

For the record, Grove of Titans never had "the 10 largest coast redwoods", a myth initiated sometime around 2010. It's remarkable how many people encounter anonymous content and scoop-up claims like it's gospel truth.

 

Preventing more Wear

If you visit the Grove of Titans, do not walk up the trunks to get a better photo. That's how damage to vegetatation happened.

Years ago, responsible people lifted fronds, stepped around sorrel and stayed off trunks. That was the good-old-days when people had to work to find this place and treated it like a masterpiece.

Image: The Del Norte Titan with winter rain falling down through the Grove of Titans. For scale is a photographer from another region.

When you see my older photos with a man or woman next to one of these titans - they side-stepped fern and sorrel. The years of leave no trace behind and leave the area its best for the next person.

Now it's impossible to reverse the damage after the location was leaked so heavily. But hopefully more people reduce further spread of damage.

 

Facts about social trails vs. official trails

Richard Preston misinformed readers when he wrote no trail was built through the Grove of Titans. Maybe no trail was built specifically for it, but Mill Creek trail crosses through the grove.

Small signs makes it clear that the parks want hikers to stay on official trails but that won't happen. You know and I know the parks are a government organization that tries to live in a perfect bubble. The rest of us live in the flexible world.

The Grove of Titans has at least two social trails that predate Mill Creek trail and in that regard may seem more official than the "official" trail. These very old paths seem date back to the historic days of Howland Hill Rd..

Presently, the most important thing is that visitors stay in the middle of any trails. So pick the official trail or social trail and stay in the middle. If you don't wander off, it's impossible to stomp more plants. The problem in the grove was never walking and standing between plants, but was stepping on plants.

 

Image: Our oldest daughter Trisha explored with me looking for the Grove of Titans in 2008. The grove was a far better experience in the days when it was a pristine. This redwood is more or less anonymous.

 

 

Hidden Cameras in the Grove of Titans and the Park

In 2015, motion cameras were installed in the Grove of Titans by someone from HSU to monitor human activity. In one way that seems redundant because wear and number of visitors was obvious. Even local people conversing in town accurately estimated foot traffic. I don't recall any signs informing hikers about the cameras. There were over 20,000 images recording any activity. If anyone was taking photos, walking, picking their nose or taking a leak, they were recorded. Cameras were also placed near Hyperion redwood in Redwood National Park. so be careful when nature calls. Hidden cameras in the park may be anywhere.

 

Grove of Titans other redwoods

August 2016, I added a few extra coast redwood photos to this page for Morpheus, Vesuvius and Ruthor Gulch Beast, but removed the pics because someone with the parks was worried about gawkers wandering farther up the valley to find them. Most people don't realize the extent of grove. So as a favor, I limited photos to the better-known.

 

Image: The redwood below is Chesty Puller in the Grove of Titans. This photo refers to Suicide Charley Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, which has historical connection to Gen. Lewis B. Puller.

 

"Nothing-burgers" and donating money

To anybody ready to donate $100.00 or $1,000,000, inquire about a final plan before giving money. When I first heard of a $1,400,000 price for Grove of Titans, I thought Holy-Cow! Wonders could be done for $250,000. But it was a shock to hear rangers bring an archaeologist to insert a single sign post. Their own rules return to bite them.

A dirty little secret - the desperation for money genuinely raises questions about purity of public education. The conservancy wrote: "unmanaged trails also transport sediment into Mill Creek, a salmon-bearing stream adjacent to the grove"

That's a nothing-burger designed to panic people. In stark contrast, drive Howland Hill Road during rainy season and look at the road where puddles, muck and sediment migrate to Mill Creek and brooks. Probably 1000 times more than any path near Grove of Titans. And 1000 is not an exaggeration - maybe even understatement. Does the park shut down that road for sediment? Not a chance ....... Find the road photo added a short scroll below.

Additionally - Fish & Wildlife teams (exclusively) wore an entirely new social trail through Grove of Titans to the brink of Mill Creek. Scroll to the photo of the contraption in water. They went routinely to count fish. I pixelated faces to keep them anonymous. That would require a permit and, or, ranger awareness. Just as the road sediment is omitted from money raising talk, there wasn't a peep about this kind of thing. I don't see a real problem with Fish & Wildlife doing work. But this should help you understand what I mean related to honesty and purity of public education. To wrap this, sediment is not a problem in the Grove of Titans. Damage and loss of plants was the biggest problem, particularly for aesthetics.

 

Image: Bella, a resident of the adjacent town enjoying the grove in autumn season.

 

So the next big question is how this project will be funded for maintenance in future years. These giants drop massive debris which can crush walks and decks. Gigantic chunks like El Viejo del Norte dropped in 2008, or Godwood Creek Giant in 2010. This is why excess deck can become repairs. Feel free to ask questions. $1,000,000 cannot ensure Grove of Titans will stand 100 years from now. Spending is both gamble and investment. Those redwoods could remain 400 years or fall in 50 years.

Summary: if possible, donate to the redwood parks. The natural resource is a benefit for countless visitors. And the rangers and other employees can use extra resources. My pages are not designed to discourage giving but to encourage learning and information.

 

Image: This is Howland Hill Road. Look at all that muck! Now consider what I wrote above about the sediment panic interjected into fund raising for Grove of Titans. Some of you reading have seen this spot. Vehicles grind this mush and it drains through culverts with Mill Creek directly down the left side.

 

Image: One reason for future Grove of Titan's maintenance questions are situations like the bridge below. This is the beginning of the Nickerson Ranch Trail in the same park. This almost new bridge in Jedediah Smith redwood park was destroyed by a trunk smaller than limbs in Grove of Titans. This is why I ask people to pause before donating money to put decks and boardwalks (and bodies) under giant redwoods. Lord !! if only they had used the Stout Grove deck funds for this bridge instead. Have you seen my video about that deck? View > Stout Grove Deck Feedback Video

 

Image: This is the cheezy replacement bridge about 1 year after the previous photo. The replacement is smaller and requires stepping down. Note yellow arrows marking damage. Not even one year and the replacement has holes and broken boards. Will future Grove of Titans boardwalks and trails belong to the same maintenance division and budget responsible for this bridge?

 

Image: This shows Fish and Wildlife workers I referred to previously in an area where these teams formed new social paths through Grove of Titans. You can see the mucky sediment area behind where they accessed Mill Creek.

 

Image: explorers Chris Atkins & Dr. Steve Sillett return 10 years later to upland Ruthlor Gulch. We spent most of this day going up Ruthlor Gulch to the higher elevation of Jedediah Smith park to see what had changed.

 

My first experience in Grove of Titans, and what became my "crossroads"

The first time I heard "Grove of Titans" was around 2007 when Preston's book was published. I hadn't heard of Michael Taylor or Steve Sillett. But was more interested to see the Grove of Titans than meet those men - because Preston made several book characters more quirky than they are in real life.

I was already exploring this part of Jedediah Smith park thoroughly. Considering how far I explored off Hiouchi and Mill Creek trails, I would have located the Grove of Titans within a year.

Preston spun the bushwhack narrative but gave the area away. Between mention of Stout Grove proximity and "grassy glade" and other clues, there were only two creeks where the men could have discovered the Grove of Titans.

Image: A view toward Lost Monarch. When you decend the trail from the forest and reach the low flat near Mill Creek, this is the view looking toward the north across the marsh.

In the Day of Discovery chapter, Preston described enough about time, distance, direction and terrain, that using Google Earth it was possible to pin-point the area. As I said, the situation in Grove of Titans today is related to Preston's book.

I was at Lost Monarch early in my search but didn't realize it. I was consumed with lichens and photograhed some on the northwest side of Lost Monarch's trunk, not noticing its size. The trunk is so large, if you stand too close the rest can't be seen. I turned and left the area. Maybe two trips later another bushwhack exited down right by Grove of Titans and I spotted one titan from a distance. I was exhausted and returned the next weekend for a closer look.

It was surprising to find out how close the grove is to the trail and that Preston gave so many details. That led to the origin of my main redwood page originally designed to cloak the grove location through truthful red herrings that distract people. The page delayed damage for up to 6 years. A few others recognized the effectiveness and helped steer readers to the page.

We realized the park's complete "radio silence" was an ineffective strategy and that it was better to flood the internet with countless blog posts linking to one Grove of Titans page. That buried inadvertent clues among countless search results. Providing a story and riddle.

Eventually, it became obvious that the grove couldn't be contained. Step by step, well-meaning people posted extra clues without realizing.

Back in 2008, my arborist knowledge, along with concealing the location, opened the door to networking with Dr. Steve Sillet, Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. So the Grove of Titans literally altered the course of my life.

Those men taught me how to explore and measure, plus many other things. That led to discoveries and a love of photography. So my professional work grew far beyond arboriculture to include professional photography and portraits. My prints hang from here to Denmark and I meet new friends from all over the world on account of experience in the coast redwoods.

The Grove of Titans was a crossroads in my life.

 

Image beneath: shows a copy of the letter and check we sent to the parks for the Grove of Titans, the greater percentage relayed to me from Mark Graham, a redwood enthusiast from back east.