Godwood Creek Giant coast redwood .. large and very tall

by Mario Vaden

 

The Godwood Creek Giant is among the largest coast redwoods in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, between Klamath and Orick. As the name implies, is grows in the park somewhere near the path of Godwood Creek in an area with no official hiking trails. In the photo below, a redwood enthusiast who traveled from Germany, is composing a photo of the Godwood Creek Giant.

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Its the trunk to the far left that more or less blends in to the scenery. The trunk slightly right of him is much more narrrow, but typically draws attention, The Knotty Lady. At the end of the last millenium, Michael Taylor invited Ron Hildebrant to measure this Godwood Creek Giant. The diameter as of 2017 is just a tad over 25 ft. dbh.

2010 measurement: diameter 24.5 feet dbh .. height 354 feet ... volume 25,636 cu. ft.

 

Continue reading after image ...

 

Godwood Creek Giant used to be among the most elusive for many folks who searched.

This is one of a handful that Michael Taylor described and gave me specific directions to. Even with directions, I didn't find this until several passes through the area. I had seen it's trunk from a distance. And the base has 10 ft. more diameter than the tallest Coast Redwood. But it was still a challenge to locate. There just happens to be a thick patch of ferns and salmonberry all around it hiding the base of it. And in that regard, Godwood Creek Giant's location seems like a Klingon cloaking device the forest energizes certain times each year. Because the it partially uncloaks in the winter time. (around 2260 AD is when Klingons acquired cloaking technology from Romulans to hide starships)

Godwood Creek Giant does not provide a good photo op for size and scale comparison with a person next to it. There is too much vegetation. It's part of a beautiful valley and photos of it may look better composed to show the grove around it, which offers plenty of protection. This coast redwood remains one of the tallest in the park, and knowing the location, it's conceivable it could have reached 370 ft. Godwood Creek Giant was described by Author Richard Preston in a chapter called The Grocery Clerk" mentioning its discovery by Michael Taylor when he started systematically exploring Prairie Creek park.

This redwood is not far from the world's 4th or 5th tallest known Sitka Spruce (2012) discovered by Chris Atkins (co-discoverer of Hyperion redwood).

An old post online from May 4, 1995

"On May 13th, I found an enormous redwood in Prairie Creek State Park with a dbh of 24.2' and a height of 354'. On the 14th, I showed this .... to Ron Hildebrant, ... who independently came up with very similar measurements.

The AFA point score ... is an astounding 1295 points rivaling even the General Sherman giant sequoia which scores 1300 points.

In 1994, we successfully nominated the Newton (Sir Isaac) in the same park as the new AFA champion at 1183 points but it appears this ... will blow it away. Because ... a rather large root swell, it's trunk volume is less than that of the Newton ... even though it scores higher on the AFA system.

Because of this, I think the AFA system is flawed. We named ... the Godwood Creek Giant. Ron estimates it contains about 25,000 cubic feet of wood.

Michael Taylor"

 

Image: like some other big redwoods, Godwood Creek Giant has a few thick accumulations of canopy soil. The second image shows a big chunk of canopy soil that fell from the redwood during winter 2009 - 2010. The white spots are expose roots of leatherleaf fern.

The backpack on the mound is for size comparison. This soil mat looks like it was about 500 to 600 pounds when wet and saturated from rain water.