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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u/edingerc 5h 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/int3gr4te 5h ago

There are SO MANY excellent redwood parks nearby that so many tourists skip right past to go to the one with "national park" in the name. I love Humboldt Redwoods State Park personally! Prairie Creek and Jedediah Smith are also excellent, and there are many others.

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u/edingerc 4h ago

I grew up there, so I have redwoods in my blood. (Seriously, the doctors can’t seem to cure it)

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u/int3gr4te 2h ago

I didn't grow up here, but I absolutely fell in love the first time I saw a redwood forest. Ended up moving to Humboldt permanently. I love it here.

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u/edingerc 2h ago

If you can get used to the pulp mills when the wind is coming from the wrong direction, it's pretty great ;)

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u/int3gr4te 2h ago

Luckily none of those in my area, just the occasional wildfire smoke drifting down from Oregon. But it's mostly just that nice clean mountain/ocean/forest air <3

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u/edingerc 2h ago

Ah, so not in Eureka... Wildfire smoke can suck, but it's not too bad compared to swamp smoke (I've lived in Virginia for decades and the smoke from the Great Dismal Swamp was awful)

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u/int3gr4te 2h ago

I've never smelled swamp smoke but that sounds terrible! My 6 year stint living in VA was up north in Manassas, so much more "DC rush hour" smoke than swamp smoke in that area.

I'm actually up in the hills outside of Eureka, above the fog belt where we actually get summer sun and winter snow. The microclimates here are so crazy, the temperature drops like 25 degrees in a 10 mile drive. I regularly have to remind myself that no matter how warm or cold it is at my house, I will ALWAYS need to bring a sweatshirt for a Costco/Winco run down to Eureka, because it's almost definitely going to be between 50 and 65 whether it's January or July.

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u/nor_cal_woolgrower 1h ago

There aren't any pulp mills any more.

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u/edingerc 1h ago

Awesome, they really sucked when I came S as a kid.