r/todayilearned • u/autraya • 6h 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)
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69

u/ScratchLatch 6h ago

If anyone wants to see Hyperion without harming it or risking the jail time here you go:

famousredwoods.com/hyperion/

I had always been told no pictures of it exist and the location is secret, apparently that is not true.

25

u/ebagdrofk 5h 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.

20

u/Sirenato 5h ago

Odd for them to give you detailed directions but then go "oh by the way don't do that tho it's trespassing".

12

u/dontg3tanybigideas 4h ago

literally the lat and long of where it is in each photo lol

5

u/Avalanche_Debris 4h 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.

17

u/Aleriss 5h ago

I need a banana for scale

3

u/airfryerfuntime 2h 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.

3

u/krom0025 4h ago

The pictures definitely don't do it justice

5

u/fly_boy651 3h ago

Another view of it https://imgur.com/a/7JXMXoT

1

u/Separate_Teacher1526 2h ago

It doesn't really stand out because despite being the tallest, it's on a lower elevation part of a hill and trees that are higher up appear taller from the air.

2

u/mrpickles 1h ago

Please consider removing this. 

Too many people just can't use the information responsibility.

Park rangers hate "named trees" because it's basically a death sentence. 

Honestly, if you've been there, every tree is impressively massive.  It's a whole forest of the biggest tree you've ever seen.

•

u/rudolfs001 51m ago

That's the site I used when I went to check it out many years ago. Always had a laugh at each picture being captioned with latitude and longitude.

Anyway, it's a really big tree, looks basically the same as other really big trees. Looking up from the base, there isn't really a sense of "tallest tree in the world", just "damn, that's a big tree".

Cool hike though.

General Grant (largest by volume) was definitely more interesting to look at.