CraigBILL

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a state park, located in Humboldt County, California, near the town of Orick and is a coastal sanctuary for old-growth Coast Redwood trees. Beautiful, full fern drenched understory growth is the stage set for these gigantic trees. Plenty of redwoods in this park have reached 300 feet tall. Some like Godwood Creek Giant and Gemini, are over 340 feet.

Besides the overwhelming heights these trees can grow, the variety of yellow, orange and even red fungus and plant habitat immerse you into a scene of incredible beauty and age. Just standing among these old groves easily misplaces your sense of urgency and modern distraction. There is a connection on a fundamental level that, for me, is hard to defy.

In my quest for redwood images, I discovered this tight grouping of sequoias. This is a special arrangement of these trees because of their relationship. When a parent tree “feels” it is in peril, maybe through fire or disease, it can urgently reproduce through shoots instead of seeds. When this happens, the younger trees are clones of the parent sequoia. In many cases, you can see where the parent tree used to root or a fallen, decaying tree rests next to the family.