Muir Woods: Home of California’s Giant Redwoods

(At the entrance to the Muir Woods, home of the giant California redwoods)

I thought I had seen the most awesome giant redwood trees on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz. But they were dwarfs in comparison to the ones I saw at the Muir Woods, about 45 minutes north of San Francisco.

The City Sight Seeing Company provided a wonderfully comfortable van that seated about 10 tourists and in the company of a knowledgeable guide called Tonas, we made our way over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the beautiful stretch of eucalyptus woods that comprise Mount Tamalpais before arriving at the Muir Woods. The drive across Mount Tamalpais is incredibly and unexpectedly delightful. One expects to be awed by the redwoods, but the sharp hairpin bends and the steep dips into the valleys, san guardrail, amidst the spicey scent of eucalyptus, are heart-stoppingly lovely.
The Muir Woods remind one of Robert Frost’s famous lines: “The woods are lonely, dark and deep/  And I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep.” Despite the fact that so many people had made the journey to see some of the tallest trees in the world, the sequoia sempervirens, popularly known as the California redwoods, the woods are so vast, and the height of the trees so towering that one feels lonely in their midst—shrunken, as it were, to insignificance, in their mighty presence.

Past the Visitor’s Center, there are trails that enthusiastic walkers could take to get deeper and deeper into the woods. But one doesn’t really need to trudge for more than twenty minutes along them to be completely ensconced by the immense girth of these tree trunks, most of which have been around for at least three to four centuries. It is one of the miracles of ecology and conservation that these trees have been left alone for such a long period of time, allowing them the luxurious opportunity to reach out towards the stars in their attempt to find sunlight. Meanwhile, at the base of each tree grows a ring of young ‘babies’, which also, as time marches on, begin their own process of reaching for the light. Thus, the width of each tree trunk is as stupendous as its height. The overall effect is one of walking under a natural canopy of green pine branches that provide a complete umbrella against the sun’s rays—hence, the darkness that envelopes one even in broad daylight.

(Standing inside the tree trunk of a California giant sequoia redwood )

A picturesque creek wends its way through the woods. Park rangers have thoughtfully created natural redwood bridges to span this creek at intervals, allowing the visitor to walk from one trail to the next at will before returning to the wood’s entrance. Having taken several pictures of the trees, their tops, their bottoms, their fallen tree trunks, their hollowed interiors, the natural bridges that some of the tree trunks have formed over time, I was ready to leave, knowing that I had seen one of the most amazing natural sights in the world.

(A stunning view of a circle of redwoods in the depths of the Muir Woods)

Bon Voyage!