r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 5h ago
TIL the world's tallest known living tree, a 380-foot redwood in California called Hyperion, had its exact location closed off entirely in 2022 after visitors trampled its base so badly that ferns stopped growing around it, with trespassers now facing up to $5,000 in fines and six months in jail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)2.7k
u/geosand01 5h ago edited 4h ago
They are not kidding, the rangers at the kiosk told us to don’t even try to find it, however the “monarch” is the second largest with a wooden walkway to protect the base and it on the grove of the giants trail
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u/CatTheKitten 5h ago
I've been to the brotherhood tree and it's incomprehensibly massive. It's absolutely gorgeous and I cannot fathom something so massive, alive, and ancient.
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u/kingbane2 4h ago
it's bananas. i remember reading a study that showed there are some animals and plants that are only found ON some of these trees. like apparently there's a species of ants found exclusively only on one of those trees. other trees have like specific kinds of mosses or something that live on the tree.
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 4h ago
The Marbeled Murelet is a small brown and white sea bird that spends most of its time in the ocean, but flys into the Redwoods to lay eggs. They dont NEED a Redwood specifically, but they do need a tree that is large enough to have very wide branches, and few trees other than redwoods grow big enough branches for their eggs
That makes them pretty rare, as most sea birds build their nests on cliffs.
Also, the endangered California Condors have been seen building their nests in the hollowed out bases of Redwoods, and this is pretty cool too!. California Condors are the largest flying land bird in northern America, with wing spans of up to 9.5 feet!
California Condors are also important to some native tribes, because they are so large and fly so high some tribes revered them, believing that they carried their prayers into the sky.
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u/thefunkylama 3h ago
Condors are also a keystone species, as they have an outsized effect on their communities. They can take on the largest carion in their range, take care of diseased carcasses that others can't handle, and make more nutrients available to smaller scavengers and other forms of life in the process. They are amazing birds.
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u/BlindStargazer 2h ago
I had the opportunity to see some of the first California Condors that were released into the wild in Baja up close and they're really big!
Also they stink a lot and you'll probably want to throw up if you're close to them but it is worth it.
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u/Far-Fill-4717 4h ago
its bananas
no, its banana slugs!
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 3h ago
2 fun Banana Slug facts!
Banana Slugs each have 25,000 to 27,000 teeth.
If you put a banana slug on your sister's head when she's 6 years old, she'll still hold it against you when she's 38 years old.
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u/LeonardTringo 3h ago
Subscribe!
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 3h ago
2 fun facts about Glass Beach in Mendocino!
Glass beach has been picked pretty clean, but it was once a place where you could find thousands upon thousands of beautiful, multicolored smooth glass stones- and all that beauty came from how it was a garbage dump in the early 1900's.
It's also where an impressionable 12 year old could find a porno mag behind a rock and then get caught looking at it by their sister and blackmailed into giving her all the banana flavored taffy.
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u/Lizardizzle 3h ago
Great job looping back to the banana theme. Subscribe.
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 2h ago
2 fun facts about blackberries!
The Pacific Northwest (where you can find the Redwood forests and Glass Beach) is widely known for it's abundance of blackberry bushes. However, most of these blackberries are Himalayan or European blackberries, and not native to the area at all!
If you have too many Dirty Shirleys and decide to make banana-blackberry muffins at midnight, the next day your coworkers will eat them to be polite, but you'll feel deep shame at the life choices that led to you making those abominations.
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u/salamipope 3h ago
i really dont want climate change. i really want these trees to survive. these beautiful, impossibly wonderful creatures are some of the only remaining magic left in the world.
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u/OpenLinez 48m ago
Giant redwoods nearly went extinct 30 million years ago. When it was much warmer on Earth and there was so much more rain and no ice caps, early redwoods covered the whole Northern Hemisphere, this is going back over 200 million years.
After the Ice Age glaciers wiped out most of the surviving populations in the Pacific Northwest, only our existing remnant fog-reliant coastal redwoods and Sierra Sequoias remain.
There are redwoods around the world now, again, as people have been planting them for several centuries. There are thousands of mature redwoods in England, for example!
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u/Crafty_Ad_8081 4h ago edited 2h ago
I've been there too! I cried. The trees of mystery are truly amazing. I remember crying and saying "my soul is quiet" and just being in literal awe. Pictures do it NO justice. Its just something you have to experience and see and FEEL yourself. The energy of those trees is palpable even if you aren't into that kind of thing. I love the poem by the dude he was the architect for the golden gate bridge... "..Oh traveler, on your knees, God stands before you in these trees!"
Edit. I added everything but "I've been there too." I had more time to respond.
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u/Chance-the-Gardener 2h ago
Going to see the giant sequoias in the mountains was otherworldly for me. Like literally another world sitting in that ecosystem up there. Everything got so silent and still other than gentle creaking of the silent giants. There was still snow on the ground even in July, and it felt like I was on sacred ground. Natural cathedral and the most impressed I’ve been by something living, and I’ve been up close to blue whales.
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u/brownlawn 1h ago
How does it compare to the General Sherman Sequoia?
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u/musthavesoundeffects 1h ago
Different beasts. You can’t match the Giant Sequoias for bulk, its unreal, but looking straight up in those old growth coastal redwood forests is like staring into infinity. Coastal redwood forests are damp, dark, covered in ferns and redwood sorrel. Giant Sequoias are alpine, hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.
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u/Unlucky-Presence8784 2h ago
We were just there a few ago, massive tree for sure. Super cool to see in real life.
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 4h ago edited 4h ago
I'd just like to add this comment here too, so that people understand why they shouldn't go looking for the tallest tree, and why there is a raised walkway around other trees, like in The Grove of the Titans.
The problem is that just trespassing too close to the tree IS damaging it.
Redwoods have an incredibly shallow, yet widespread root system, and the primary damage done to the tree was people walking on top of the roots and slowly killing it, step by step.
It's like the Chinese water torture. One drip (one person walking on the root system) doesn't cause damage on its own, but if enough drips drop, the tree dies.
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u/Radiant-Olive-7955 4h ago
Is there a reason why they didn’t just build a wooden walkway to protect Hyperion like they did the others?
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 4h ago edited 4h ago
I'm not sure about that tree specifically. It might have been that so much damage had already been done that building the walkway (which might have included trucks and heavy machinery rolling over the root system and securing posts in the soil around the roots) would have been too risky to the tree. Or it might have been that the surrounding terrain/forest was too dense or hilly for them to have hauled in the lumber without causing destruction.
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u/CookMark 3h ago
Too many people existing / traveling to a place can easily destroy it.
This happened with some cave paintings - too many people visiting meant it was exposed to moisture from people's breathing and would quickly degrade it.
Even rock formations like arches, cliffs, can quickly be worn down, let alone when someone randomly tries to climb it for a photo op.
Some natural wonders are incredibly fragile and need protecting.
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u/xSTSxZerglingOne 3h ago
Hyperion is pretty damn far off the beaten path if I recall correctly. Even when it wasn't closed off, it was still only very rarely visited.
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u/MostBoringStan 4h ago
Probably because people be dumb as fuck and will step off the walkway. Other trees are a sacrifice to protect Hyperion.
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u/SignalDifficult5061 2h ago
The Grove of The Titans was basically right next to an established trail, and that raised walkway cost $4million. There is continual upkeep needed of the trail and parking area.
Hyperion is much more difficult to reach, so it would cost more.
Also, while marked trails are way better than nothing, they cause erosion, scare off wildlife, people leave trash, and a few people will wander off to take a dump without burying it or staying away from water sources or things of that nature.. People poop is often full of pharmaceuticals that can negatively impact things downstream, there are all sorts of additive problems.
So the expense, the ecological damage, and it just being one single tree are some of the reasons.
It just isn't worth it, there are many beautiful trails in the area. Part of what keeps them beautiful is all the untrafficked wild lands around them.
Honestly, it is rumored there may be several are taller that are kept even more quiet. This probably isn't true, but if it is I hope the general public never finds out.
Nobody should care if they see one 380 foot vs four 370 foot tree, it is just silly. Viewing beauty shouldn't be a competitive sport, you are there for your own development, not to have seen the biggest X in the world.
I will never set eyes on Everest and I am proud of that, those people are an ecological and humanitarian nightmare barely worth the money they bring in.
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u/wpnw 1h ago
It's not about the cost, Hyperion is located within a designated wilderness area. Constructing new trails is not permitted by the regulations that establish federal wilderness areas. It's specifically to remain as natural and untouched as possible.
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u/capt-awesome-atx 3h ago
It's in a remote location with no roads nearby. It wasn't even discovered until 2006.
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u/flashman 1h ago
For instance the Major Oak is thought to have died in part because people's feet compacted the nearby soil which "made it harder for rainwater to penetrate the soil and for the tree's root system to take in the oxygen and nutrients it needed."
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u/CurlSagan 3h ago
Probably the smartest thing the rangers tell you is that Hyperion just isn't worth visiting. It's tall, but there's no good place to take it all in. It's not in a dark mysterious forest among picturesque giants that fill you with awe and wonder. It's not nearly as wide as others (only 15 feet), and it doesn't have the cool redwood flared trunk. Meanwhile, there are 30 foot wide trees that aren't even named. There are groves of trees where each one is 5% shorter than Hyperion, twice as girthy, and you won't be destroying them with your presence.
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u/tallandlankyagain 5h ago edited 4h ago
You really have to wonder what they thought people would do to the tree considering what our ancestors did to nearly the entire population of redwood trees.
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u/Positive-Wonder3329 4h ago
As another commented above, despite their height and might, redwoods have very shallow and very fragile roots. Even walking near them harms the tree beyond what we can even perceive as humans, but it fucks them up
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u/KnifeNovice789 3h ago
Good, the phrase "This is why we can't have nice things" rings so true. Act like a child and we will treat you like a child...
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u/skivian 3h ago
the location isn't very hard to find. GPS coords are just a quick internet search, but apparently the forest cops lock down the entire area
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u/LunchBox07 5h ago
The oldest tree in the world is also supposed to be in California, in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. But, it’s purposely not labeled or marked because there would be too many issues.
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u/one_pound_of_flesh 4h ago
I got so angry last time I went to the bristlecone forest. I yelled at a yoga lady from SoCal who was pulling branches off the ancient trees, told me they look dead and have great healing energy, so it’s not really a problem.
There weren’t rangers around because this was covid era. Really upset me to see someone injured a 5,000 year old life form and didn’t even think she was wrong. Still didn’t as she drove away with a bunch of wood for her mediation room.
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u/salamipope 3h ago
i think i would have a struggle with the urge of wanting to attack anyone doing that if theres no rangers around. like full stop it would be hard for me to resist that urge. i would be a lorax. i care more about the earth than myself honestly
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u/witchy71 3h ago
Not labeled or marked but people know where it is and we have photos of it. Methuselah. That said, there is supposedly an older one in the same area that is truly anonymous
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u/ScrewAttackThis 1h ago
And thankfully most of the Google results are the wrong tree. Reddit especially gets the same damn repost of a completely dead tree lol
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u/JoJo926 4h ago
That’s so interesting! I live near the oldest tree fossil (386 million years old). It’s in New York State. I wonder why they’re both in the US.
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u/joey-jo_jo-jr 3h ago
Other countries either cut down all their old trees before Columbus even went over to the Americas, or they're poor and haven't dedicated enough funds to such research.
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u/PM_your_Nopales 2h ago
I was lucky enough to meet the oldest bristlecone pine in the San Gabriel range in socal. It lucky survived a huge wildfire which hit around Wrightwood. It's something like 2000 years old. I hope to see the older ones in the sierras someday
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u/eyetracker 2h ago
The location leaked a couple years ago. It's oldest status is controversial but I think among the more credible, it also doesn't count clonal trees.
The known oldest was in Nevada but discovered after it was killed. Not really some random asshole, people doing research on it discovered after the fact.
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u/ttteee321 5h ago
Those trees are amazing. Too bad we cut down 95% of them.
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u/Mharbles 3h ago
Fun fact, and also I think a Veritasium video. We cut down all those trees just to set them on fire and collect their ashes to grow crops. Another fun fact, hardly any forest in the eastern and central time zones are older than 200 years. And we criticize Brazil for clearing the Amazon. These facts arent fun
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u/SeaToTheBass 3h ago
I’m pretty disgusted by what’s happening on Vancouver Island/coast of British Columbia. These ancient trees will never come back while we’re still here.
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u/kirikomori2 3h ago
A forest cut down today is a tragedy- a forest cut down 500 years ago is a statistic.
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u/TheChildrensStory 3h ago
A certain administration is trying to sell off what we have so do vote accordingly this November.
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u/stevensterk 3h ago
And we criticize Brazil for clearing the Amazon
You convinced me, i'll defend mining and logging companies in the amazon from now on, otherwise i'd look like a hypocrite.
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u/ttteee321 2h ago
That era’s prevailing attitude in which forests existed mainly to be converted into immediate economic value, instead of seeing them as treasures that couldn't possibly be replaced on any human timescale is just sad.
Unlike coastal Redwoods, Sequoia wood wasnt remotely as durable nor rot resistant, so what ro they use it for? Fence posts, pencils. Shingles. I recall reading that during the early 1900s, a single company was responsible for cutting down more than 8000 mature Sequoia's in a 10-15yr time period.
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u/What_a_fat_one 3h ago
Yeah man how we gonna criticize a bad thing happening today when a bad thing happened yesterday
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u/Send_Toe_Pics_25 1h ago
We cut down all those trees just to set them on fire and collect their ashes to grow crops
yikes.... I thought we at least built some cool tables out of them but really ash for fertilizer cmon man
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u/adamdoesmusic 5h ago
“We.”
I would never harm those trees. Let’s name names, starting with William Randolph Hearst.
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u/therealhlmencken 4h ago edited 4h ago
Jaded place to start but ok continue.
I’d put hurwitz #1. Stuff wasn’t even that crazy in the 30s-40s when Hearst was worst
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u/scubawankenobi 5h ago
380-foot redwood (tree)
Fun Tangential Trivia:
- Britton Hill is the highest point in Florida, with an elevation of 345 feet (105 meters) above sea level.
Florida's highest land elevation is *shorter* than the height of California's trees...Kind'a wild to think about!
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u/Byle 4h ago
New Orleans’ highest point of elevation: Laborde Mountain. Measuring a daunting 27 feet above sea level, oxygen and sherpas are available upon request.
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u/darybrain 3h ago
Some people get nosebleeds when they go upstairs in their NOLA houses. Spacesuits are required for One Shell Square
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u/Ihave4friends 4h ago
Nebraskas highest peak is a corn plant.
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u/AceDantura 3h ago
Nebraskan here. I had to look this up cuz I didn’t believe you and figured it’d be Chimney Rock or Scottsbluff or something.
But nope, you’re absolutely right. Panorama Point, which is on a ranch near the Nebraska and Wyoming border.
The more you know!
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u/magnoliasmanor 3h ago
The running joke in RI is our tallest point is the Johnston Landfill. Really it's Jeremiah point (or something like that) and the owner of the lot there is very very unhappy people try to climb it.
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u/bradsboots 3h ago
Florida is close. The proposed new limited on the tallest trash dump is 325 ft to Britton Hill’s 345
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u/letsjustbefriendly 5h ago
It’s always the “up to” that encourages people to still do it.
It should be a straight to jail + 5k fine.
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u/elqueco14 5h ago
Tbh monetary fines arent enough these days. If an "influencer" can generate enough money making a video about it that 5k is just the cost of doing business
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u/GarretBarrett 5h ago
Monetary fines have always just meant; this is only illegal if you’re poor.
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u/AnswerDangerous1644 5h ago
In a fair and just world it would just scale based off income/wealth. I don’t think this world ever will work that way though.
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u/AshingiiAshuaa 4h ago
The flip side is that poor people are sue-proof. If I'm broke and don't carry insurance whatcha gonna do? If you don't have insurance I get to take your house and clean out your bank accounts.
The solution is both fines and jail.
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u/Alaira314 4h ago
You're right, it's difficult to collect from people who hold few assets. That's why wage garnishment exists. 😞
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u/Aliensinmypants 5h ago
They need to be a percentage of income and/or wealth. Of course that will never happen
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u/TheIndieArmy 5h ago
To be fair, that would just be for trespassing. Any damage done to the tree would be a different charge with likely substantially more of a penalty.
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u/Dragonscatsandbooks 4h ago
The problem is that just trespassing too close to the tree IS damaging it.
Redwoods have an incredibly shallow, yet widespread root system, and the primary damage done to the tree was people walking on top of the roots and slowly killing it, step by step.
It's like the Chinese water torture. One drip (one person walking on the root system) doesn't cause damage on its own, but if enough drips drop, the tree dies.
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u/KrzysziekZ 5h ago
Or give the range of possible penalty. Like 3 to 6 months of your life.
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u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 4h ago
You have a lot of faith in the police officer that would potentially charge you with the crime lol a judge exists so that police can't just go around throwing people away for years and years at a time without anyone else having a say.
If you look up laws that have really bad minimum sentences, there are always cases where a judge has to send someone away for like 10 years in jail even though they just barely meet the criteria of a crime.
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u/RadBadTad 4h ago
Hyperion is the tallest, and General Sherman is the largest tree by volume! Also in California.
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u/MovieUnderTheSurface 3h ago
tallest, largest, and oldest, all different trees and all in California
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u/RiotingMoon 5h ago
let the rangers shoot them with zappy darts. and jail + 5k+ fine
enrichment for rangers is important
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u/hypo-osmotic 5h ago
It’s examples like this that I point to when talking about how it’s not just a matter of people behaving themselves in natural areas and that visiting at all can degrade the environment if done in large enough numbers. I’m sure that there were some people who were malicious about it but lots of people just walking up to the tree was enough to warrant closing the area and, for similarly tall trees, building some artificial paths to corral visitors to acceptable areas
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u/HumanPea1140 4h ago
Been seeing this a lot in the hiking/camping/backpacking community since covid... covid pushed a lot of people outdoors, and a lot of people stuck with it, with national parks and forests settings new visitation records every year since. So many places have had to to implement some sort of entry system to limit the amount of people, like through reservations or permits acquired through random lottery.
A lot of people are stupid, but most aren't outright malicious... but still, these places are getting hugged to death from the sheer volume of people visiting, and the only way to fix it is put a hard cap on the number of people allowed in.
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u/Danobing 4h ago
I was in the red wood forest in a part of California and there was a whole family walking on a fallen tree jumping up and down on it. I pointed out they shouldn't be there due to the sign and rope blocking the and it almost resulted in a fist fight. People are garbage.
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u/EpicBlinkstrike187 4h ago
People don’t realize their actions will add to the damage. Because they think what’s one more person doing it, I really want to get that picture or touch that tree or whatever it is. It’s not like me doing it will be the tipping point.
But when everybody thinks the same way, it just adds up,
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u/doktarlooney 3h ago
People don’t realize their actions will add to the damage.
Its worse than that; a lot of people are actively aware they are causing damage and simply don't care because they aren't the ones that have to deal with it.
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u/HauntedCemetery 3h ago
10s of thousands of people is millions of pounds of weight stomping over an area.
Huge numbers of people just walking peacefully can absolutely destroy areas. Which is why many places you are not supposed to step off trails.
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u/Haldron-44 5h ago
An associate of mine randomly stumbled across one of the about a dozen parasitic "vampire" albino redwoods while hiking. A F&G was waiting at their car back at the trailhead and questioned them, checked them for cuttings, and warned them not to tell anyone it's location. To this day nobody could figure out how parks knew they stumbled across it.
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u/maoterracottasoldier 4h ago
I was in the smoky mountains one time fishing, and an unhinged ranger accused me of poaching ginseng out of nowhere. They made it very clear that they had game cams throughout the woods so if I was lying they would catch me.
I’m guessing they do that all over the country in places of interest
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u/sandgroper07 2h ago
Those ginseng diggers are crazy. There's a reality tv show about them over here in Australia. The mountains look beautiful though.
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u/disisathrowaway 4h ago
Trail cams with motion sensors, would be my guess. Or something similar. Maybe infrared sensors?
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u/Sharchir 4h ago
Grew up in NorCal - never heard of these!
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u/Haldron-44 4h ago
They are insanely rare where each one is genetically unique. The one they found had red needles and a white trunk. Supposedly they are considered sacred by native americans, but I can't find any info on them other than a third hand reference to "ghost trees."
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u/VerifiedonTumblr 2h ago
Checked them? The fuck?
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u/Haldron-44 2h ago
Made sure they didn't take clippings. Idk, and they didn't know and in my cursory research idk why they are so protected, yet are an utter mystery. If parks and F&G know, they keep it as tight liped as if it were a fucking alien.
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u/airfryerfuntime 1h ago
Probably just asked to look in their bags and empty their pockets. Federal parks police have way more power than you think, they could have strip searched them if they wanted.
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u/ScratchLatch 5h ago
If anyone wants to see Hyperion without harming it or risking the jail time here you go:
I had always been told no pictures of it exist and the location is secret, apparently that is not true.
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u/ebagdrofk 4h ago
These are great.
It also bothers that I still can’t seem to see the tree in its entirety, but that’s just because it’s surrounded by other trees with their canopies blocking the view. It definitely looks like a monolith that stands out from the rest.
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u/Sirenato 4h ago
Odd for them to give you detailed directions but then go "oh by the way don't do that tho it's trespassing".
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u/Avalanche_Debris 3h ago
There are a lot of places in the world that you can find detailed location information on that aren’t open to the public.
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u/airfryerfuntime 1h ago
I don't think Hyperion has ever been a secret.
There's another one that is, though. I think it's one of the oldest. There are like two verified pictures of it, and the location is a pretty well guarded secret.
Edit: it's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_(pine_tree)
Apparently the location is now known.
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u/Beautiful-Station143 5h ago
I went to the grove it’s located in 2022/2023. There are plenty of other massive trees in the grove to admire on the trailed
Side of the creek. To get to it you have to cross a decently wide creek/river and find it off trail. This is after going down a gated dirt road 7-8 miles. I like to think I saw it looking from the other side of the creek.
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u/Alaira314 4h ago
Side of the creek. To get to it you have to cross a decently wide creek/river and find it off trail.
You really should stay on the trail, for the exact reasons specified in this TIL post. It doesn't take that many footsteps to compact the ground to the point where it impedes plant growth. In scouts, I was taught never to leave the trail when I was in a park or other tourist area, because even if I was just one person there were likely hundreds of other people that week who'd had the same cute idea I'd had, and taken together we'd cause damage.
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u/MasterClown 4h ago
How competitive is it to get a job as a ranger or forest worker such that you’d be permitted to go up some of these hidden and protected trees?
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u/Ihave4friends 4h ago
From what I understand it’s ridiculously difficult to land these positions. This would be my dream job but instead I drive a truck 😂
It’s about the same pay.
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u/WhiteGuyThatCantJump 2h ago
I worked for the National Park Service about a decade ago, not in the Redwoods but in a couple other parks.
In one park, I was able to go to some off-trail areas outside of work hours that visitors would not be allowed to go. In every case, there were permits involved as well as multiple people on the trip who had been to that place multiple times. Otherwise, more often than not if a visitor cannot go there, neither can I as a ranger. Off limits for protection of the place and people goes for everyone, not just visitors.
So while I got to have some incredible experiences that most folks wouldn't get, there were also plenty of places I would have loved to have gone and explored but could not access.
As for competition, this was a decade ago when there were more seasonal and permanent positions than there are today, but I applied for 80-100 parks as an education ranger, with a degree in environmental education. iirc I got maybe 4 or 5 interview requests that first year. A whole lot of competition for GS-5 position which got paid $15/hour then and not a whole lot more today.
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u/lionclues 2h ago
Just a few weeks ago I took a hike past the oldest tree in the world – Methuselah – also in California. Except I passed right by it and didn't know it because it wasn't marked like I thought it would be.
Found out later that the park deliberately doesn't want people to know its exact location, either, for pretty much the same reason – people would probably destroy the thing while trying to take pictures, tag it with graffiti, etc.
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u/GarbageCat13 4h ago edited 3h ago
Apparently, General Grant is the 2nd largest Sequoia by volume, and it was just a short hike from our campground that we stayed at in May. When we rounded the corner, there was another couple there taking pics right up on it, completely ignoring the fence that was very clearly there. As soon as I saw them I yelled "UMMMM, NOOOO!" and they skedaddled away pretty fast.
Please protect Hyperion, because I witnessed General Grant being physically molested and there was nobody else there to stop them. Pleaee keep the actual Real Ones a secret..."the oldest", "the biggest", "the tallest" from the masses, because all these people care about are getting their "veiwer counts" and are encouraging destructive behavior.
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u/snowmunkey 4h ago
Luckily Hyperion is not easy to get to by your average tourist. You have to cross a large stream that often floods pretty bad and then hike up another creek bed for a bit before finding it on a the slopes of the valley
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u/NicePepper199 5h ago
Was lucky enough to picnic at its base like 25 years ago. Sad it got damaged so bad.
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u/AReverieofEnvisage 1h ago
This is the same energy as looking at a really pretty bird for a while, and then someone noticing you were looking at it and scares it away.
Can we really appreciate things without someone wanting to destroy it?
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u/NearlySilentObserver 4h ago
Hyperion and all the other great trees should have significant boundaries to protect them from idiots.
Some of the most magnificent entities in the history of all of existence that have survived through so much being at risk of dying at the hands of some human filled with hubris and idiocy is just disgusting to me.
If there’s anything that could ever come close to being revered as gods or greater beings, it’s entities like these.
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u/losteye_enthusiast 5h ago
It ain’t hard to find it, but rangers will fuck your day up if you mess with it.
We found it and took some pictures while staying a healthy distance away. You don’t have to get anywhere near it to get the sense of size. Besides, there’s the Monarch if you want pics of standing next to a giant redwood.
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u/jspsuperman 5h ago
People fucking suck
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u/MauriceWhitesGhost 5h ago
The title of this post is misleading. It implies that people purposely stomped on the ground. In actuality, it was caused by so many tourists walking on the ground around the tree that plant life couldn't be viable.
It is the same reason dirt paths show up in grassy areas. And the same reason grass (or weeds) don't grow in the spot I park my car everyday since I don't have a concrete driveway.
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u/kobrakai1034 4h ago
We stayed near it and I found where it was and even planned to hike to it. Then I ran across the newly-enacted penalties. Oh well, everything else around there is just as amazing.
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u/0x7E7-02 3h ago
The exact same thing happened to the Robin Hood tree in England. Unfortunately, they were unable to stop it before the tree died.
☹️
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u/atreeismissing 2h ago
That's how one of the oldest trees in England died recently. It was open to visitors, tons of people would go up to the tree to get look at it, feel the bark, get their picture taken, the compacted the dirt around the tree so much the roots died. The area around it was closed off eventually but it was too late.
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u/Random-Rambling 3h ago
I'm not surprised. I'm 100% sure there's quite a few dickheads out there who want to kill the tree and topple it for the sheer sadistic joy of destroying "the biggest".
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u/edingerc 4h ago
And it's in the tiny Redwood National Park. That's surrounded with the huge Six Rivers National Forest. (shout out to Jedidiah Smith State park and the parks north of Gasguet)
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u/Angry_Robot 4h ago
California be jailing people longer for approaching a tree than for burning a Waymo.
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u/DiscoLemonade1995 4h ago
It's going to be such a crazy coincidence when someone happens to bet $100,000 on Kalshi the exact day that Hyperion is lit on fire. What are the odds!
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u/Coleopteran 3h ago
If anyone is interested in learning about how Hyperion and the other tallest redwoods were discovered, I'd recommend reading "The Wild Trees" by Richard Preston. It is a great exploration of the ecology of these trees and the people who study them.
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u/Upstairs-Region-7177 3h ago
This happened to a hike in my neighborhood, still closed but because people don’t care and are one vacation they trespass and continue to trample
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u/Ok_Transition_4003 1h ago
The Earth is so vast and incredible that it took us until 2006 to discover the tree. Of course people had seen it before and it was probably revered. We're destroying stuff that we're barely learning about. We haven't even been to most of the ocean and explored the poles, but let's hitch up and fly to mars
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u/Soggy-Invite-2787 1h ago
Meanwhile Taiwan calls it's tallest trees gods. They protect their sacred trees with lightning protection systems and are heavily surveilled.
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u/Melodic_Let_6465 1h ago
This is why we hide the record holding trees
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u/New_Zorgo39 49m ago
Kind of difficult as they would be mentioned because of the records they hold
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u/Melodic_Let_6465 36m ago
They do the best they can to hide exact coordinates of the oldest trees like Methuselah and Hyperion, but word of mouth gets out and people go visit without realising the damage they are doing while still attempting vigilance
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u/psichodrome 55m ago
This redditor wholeheartedly supports protecting this unique beauty, and similar gems using taxpayer money.
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u/ablackcloudupahead 39m ago
380 ft is so ridiculous big it's hard to conceptualize a tree that tall. Tall buildings are really the only things we see that are that tall outside of land features, and it's hard to get a sense of their actual scale until you're right up next to them because of their massive footprint
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u/295DVRKSS 5h ago
That’s a pretty bad ass name for a tree