The Dyerville Giant was a "Champion" tree standing 362 feet (equal to a 30 story building) until it fell in 1991. It is 17 feet in diameter. Redwood roots grow down only a few feet, but can extend laterally over 100 feet and intertwine with other trees, helping hold each other up.
We also found the "Spirit Tree", which is a 20 foot tall albino redwood.
I spent a lot of the day looking down, since I was determined to see a banana slug. We talked with the owners of our campground and they told us to look beside the stream next to their office, and we found two of them! They are fascinating creatures! They are bright yellow and about 6-8 inches long.
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| Tommie peeking out of a hollow tree |
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| Roots of a fallen giant |
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| This is the Dyersville Giant. Look closely at the far end, just over the light log, and you can see Tommie's head and his hands in the air. He was standing at the root of the tree, and where I was standing the tree was still four feet in diameter! It takes 400 years for a tree of this size to decay. |
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| Burls on a tree. They are formed from dormant buds and often produce shoots of their own. |
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| More burls |
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| These trees can be damaged by fire and continue to live. |
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| Spirit tree It has sprouted from another redwood. |
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| Closeup of white needles |
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| We watch out for poison oak! It's a little different from our poison ivy. |
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| This tree was girdled about 100 years ago when a group wanted to exhibit a sample of a redwood trunk. It managed to live in spite of the damage. |
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| My banana slug! |
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| We saw several families of California quail eating next to our campground! I couldn't get too close or they would run into the bushes. |
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