Felton Redwoods

This past Monday we drove up to Felton California from Cambria, about 110 miles. We were going here because this area of California is the home the the famous California Redwood forests. There are several forests and state parks in this area of California, but we picked the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park as it is the most easily accessible. If you want to locate it you can find it at: 37º 01' 23.99" N 122º 03' 13.27" W in Google Earth.

The Henry Cowell Redwoods state Park is fairly small only about 4,000 acres but is the home to some of the largest and most spectacular redwoods in this part of the state. One of the trees in this park is about 270 feet tall and almost 17 feet wide.

Some of the things I learned on this trip is that redwood trees are specially adapted to the rather temperate, foggy and moist conditions found in this region. They never are found any more than 20 to 40 miles from the ocean.

Have you ever wondered why redwood trees are red? Well I found out that the Redwood bark and wood are full of tannic acid, which gives them this color.

One of the most unusual things about Redwood trees is that even though they are conifers, these trees actually reproduce by sprouting out new trees from their roots.

The pictures in the blog really do not give credit to the size and spectacular nature of these trees, if you ever visit California you really should check out the Redwood forests, they are AWESOME!