Adventure ~ Coast Redwood

This page is an off-shoot of Largest Coast Redwoods

Copyright 2009 by Mario Vaden

Adventure is another redwood discovered in Prairie Creek Redwoods by Michael Taylor. And its the 8th largest today. When you look at this photograph, maybe imagine canopy researchers sitting at the very top, among the huckleberries 6' below the top shown. As described by author Richard Preston in a book chapter called The Fire Caves of Adventure.

The trunk of adventure has big hollows sometimes called fire caves, following centuries of breakage, decay and fire within its 40 stem crown. At 180 feet is one called the Upper Fire Cave, which is more of a canopy cieling. With canopy soil at its opening. This redwood has a main trunk that is still 7' diameter at 250' high, where small huckleberry thickets are located. Near 290', a rare moss was found, called slender straight-toothed moss ~ Orthodontium gracile. Adventure also has Methuselah's Beard ~ Usnea longissima ~ lichen, which is visible even from ground level. Among others too, are tube lichen and black bloody heart lichen and wart lichen. The Cladonia genus grows up there too, which can be seen elsewhere hiking the trails. Some have bright little nubby tips, but are very short, growing millimeters per year.

For reference, 2009 data for Adventure redwood is 330.4' or 101.9 m high, 16.5' diameter, and 32,140 cubic feet wood volume. The trunk is almost 10' narrower than Lost Monarch, but Adventure's trunk barely tapers higher up. There is tremendous wood volume, and its also a very tall redwood. Thus it remains a titan. The view below is a photo taken from about 600 feet away, showing the upper third or so of its height. It is a very healthy looking top, and the trunk is in good shape too, surrounded by western sword ferns. You can see the broken top a little bit.