Screaming Titans Coast Redwood
30 foot dbh !Continued from: Largest Coast Redwoods
Copyright 2009 by Mario Vaden
Screaming Titans is the 1st Titan size redwood that Prof. Steve Sillett and Michael Taylor saw as they entered the Grove of Titans on The Day of Discovery: May, 1998. Just before they discovered El Viejo del Norte. This can be considered a twin redwood, and is not on the list for the top 10 or top 50 largest coast redwoods. Visually, this may be the most outstandingly large redwood trunk base in any of the redwood parks.
But for all practical purposes, it's pretty much one redwood. This huge mass of cambium and wood has fused and merged into basically one organism that easily meets or beats General Sherman Sequoiadendron for a photo opportunity. From at least 2 sides, it's 3' to 4' wider at chest level than the General, and the lush ferns provide an excellent backdrop.
A few images of this redwood have been mistakenly captioned online as Lost Monarch, which is known to be a single stem redwood. The lower trunk of Screaming Titans is fused enough that visitors will see it as a single trunk from about 15' down on this view shown below.
I don't know the height on this one or the wood volume. But the diameter at chest level is about 30' wide. There are black charred spots on the trunk from fire, and not just down low. Researcher Sillett who climbed Lost Monarch in the same grove, said that redwood appeared to have lost all it's main branches to a forest fire. Likely a fire that affected Screaming Titans too. I've been across the hill on both sides of this grove for about a half mile in each direction, and there are plenty of burnt stumps and logs, and blackened trunks. There was a substantial fire. Likely several hundred years ago.
This is one of the redwoods to explore for on your own. Clues and directions will not be written.
Note: in the photo, Mario Vaden is standing about 4 feet above ground level on needle mulch against the trunk. The trunk flares outside the image, down toward the ground.
Image: 2008, courtesy of Gerald Beranek ~ www.atreestory.com
