Drury Redwood | 12th

Continued from: Largest Coast Redwoods

Copyright 2009 - 2013 by Mario Vaden ~ Image with Michael Vaden 2009

The Drury redwood is located in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. For reference, 2009 data for the Drury redwood is 275' or 83.8 m high, 19.2' diameter, and 29,774 cubic feet wood volume. Making the Drury Tree the 12th largest redwood, at least in 2009. (Update 2013 from Michael Taylor landmark trees site ... 20.8' diameter & 30,103 cubit feet).

Photos may add more taper than the trunk really has. Its a bulldog of a specimen, like a wooden fortress wall. The trunk has features with some resemblance to a half skull.

Redwoods like the Drury redwood make me wonder why some folks focus exclusive energy looking for Del Norte Titan, Iluvatar or Hyperion. A few specimens like Drury redwood or Arco Giant are not too hard to find, with notable photogenic character. No clues will be listed here, but I offer a thumbs up that those are worth searching for. Arco Giant can be photographed, most of it. But the Drury redwood is best seen standing in front of it ... although ... there is one impressive distant view from about 250 feet away, looking sort of N x NW

There are marks on the bark from fire. The evidence on and around these redwoods seems to denote that forest fires were centuries apart. On Drury redwood, this is easy to spot on the west side (seems like the "behind" side), where charcoal still lingers many years afterward.

Redwood National Parks ranger Jim Wheeler shared something rather interesting about this redwood ... the remains of spring board notches and what appears to be a "healed" over cut where a felling cut may have occured. In the side by side image, Wheeler is pointing with a long stick to the healed-over area left of what looks like an "eye" on the trunk. In the other photo, the dark spot he's pointing to is one of the spring board notches. There are several ... a couple still hollow or more evident, plus other that have completely closed. 3 on the north side are almost staggered, well over 12 feet high. The 3rd photo is ranger Jim Wheeler shown on the downslope side of the trunk, February 2013. That's the side where fire charring is easy to spot between other bark.