Only 50 permits a day are issued on this stunning Northern California hike
The world's tallest tree inspired this California national park
By Suzie Dundas
Ask a nature enthusiast in California to name a famous tree, and they might mention Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, or General Sherman, the massive giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park. But in the early 1960s, few trees had names. Even fewer were recognized for their ecological or recreational value. Redwood trees, in particular, were valued for their timber — not for their towering beauty or environmental importance.
That began to change in 1964, when the July issue of National Geographic featured articles titled “Finding the Mt. Everest of All Living Things” and “World’s Tallest Tree Discovered.” The issue showcased vivid full-color photographs of the ancient Sequoia sempervirens, including a cover photo of National Geographic editor Melville Bell Grosvenor standing, dwarfed, beside the 367.8-foot Howard Libbey Tree.
For many readers, it was the first time they’d seen California’s redwoods, let alone grasped their monumental scale. The cover story is credited with sparking a national outcry to preserve the remaining old-growth redwoods. But for those involved in the effort to establish Redwood National Park, the publication didn’t begin the work — it cemented it.
“I would characterize that article and discovery of the tallest tree in the [Tall Trees Grove] as the final impetus for creating a national park,” says Leonel Arguello, deputy superintendent at Redwood National and State Parks. “However, the real story is much more nuanced, as the idea for a national park had been a national discussion with environmentalists and advocacy organizations and in the halls of Congress long before that article came out.”
The push for a redwood national park
One recent October afternoon, I stood under Howard Libbey itself — and didn’t even know it. Howard Libbey, also known as “Tall Tree,” no longer holds the title of the tallest tree in the world, as it did from 1963 to 1988. It’s now only the 34th tallest tree — and not even the tallest tree in the surrounding grove. Measuring about 363 feet, it’s seen a slight reduction in height since the 1960s, possibly due to silt deposits from floods or lightning damage to its upper branches.
But while it may have lost approximately 5 feet of height, it saved thousands of acres of other old-growth redwood trees.
The Tall Trees Grove ranks among the most renowned old-growth redwood forests in the world. Tucked deep within Redwood National Park, reaching it requires a 7-mile drive along a dirt road, followed by a challenging 1.5-mile hike down to the grove and an equally steep hike back up. Access is tightly regulated, with only 50 permits issued per day and a locked gate that prevents skirting the permit system. During my October visit, about 10 next-day permits were available online, and I snagged one on a Monday for a Tuesday afternoon visit.
Though each permit allows up to seven people, only two cars were parked at the trailhead when I arrived via the dusty, uneven dirt road. The trail descends quickly but also gives a taste of its grandeur quickly, as hikers will encounter the often-photographed “Tunnel Tree” about .3 miles in. The path follows the Trinidad Trail, an old wagon road that carried supplies to miners working along the nearby rivers. It drops roughly 800 feet before reaching the start of the grove. Fortunately, the National Park Service phone app, which has a Redwoods National Park tour that highlights points of interest along the route, adds an interesting layer of historical context — and acts as a welcome excuse for short breaks on the way back up.
The downhill is speedy, and it took me only about 25 minutes to descend, driven by an eagerness to reach the legendary grove ahead of any later-arriving hikers. While redwoods line the entire trail, when you reach river level, your perspective noticeably shifts. Instead of having an eye-level view of trunks while you’re above them on the trail, you’re now looking up from below, watching the towering giants swaying more than 300 feet above.
“The juxtaposition of tall, large-diameter redwoods and Redwood Creek, in a steep narrow valley bottom surrounded by more old-growth redwoods, is not duplicated elsewhere in the park,” says Arguello.
The grove may be modest in acreage, but it’s certainly not ordinary. Somewhat hidden at the bottom of a forested river canyon and far removed from roads and trails, Tall Trees Grove is not something you’ll find just anywhere in California.
The official “Tall Trees Loop” through the Tall Trees Grove starts at the bottom of the descent trail. At 1 mile long, it’s the easier and only relatively flat part of the hike. From the sign for the Tall Trees Loop, head left. It’s just a few hundred yards to the trees that graced the Nat Geo cover.
Many of these trees were once the tallest in the world, until other trees superseded them. Howard Libbey is just across the trail from Melkor (the largest tree in the park by volume) and close to the National Geographic Tree, abbreviated NGT but affectionately known to arborists as “Nugget.” At 373.5 feet tall, Nugget was the tallest tree in the world from 1991 to 1995; nowadays, it’s the third-tallest tree in the world and the tallest in the grove. That puts it just behind Helios (377 feet, in the park’s nearby Helios Grove) and 380-foot-tall Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, so threatened from overtourism that visiting it is now illegal.
The expedition spurred the government to act
The notion that a single National Geographic cover captured the collective public psyche to such an extent that it led to the creation of a national park may be appealing, but the NatGeo expedition’s discovery of the trees wasn’t by chance. Local logging companies had long known that trees in that location were extraordinarily large, and federal leaders were already well aware of the urgent need to protect redwood forests.
Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, played a pivotal role in redwood conservation efforts as early as 1917 when he took office. He used his political influence to urge conservationists to explore northern California’s redwood groves; those conservationists went on to found the Save the Redwoods League. The League became instrumental in acquiring land for Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in the 1920s and 1930s, and those three parks cover roughly half of the 132,000-acre Redwood National and State Parks system that exists today.
In 1913, the U.S. government declined an opportunity to purchase 22,000 acres of redwood forest for a national park, indicating federal awareness of the redwoods and the threats they faced from logging. This concern grew more urgent with the introduction of electric chainsaws in the 1920s, which intensified the speed at which the giant trees could be felled. It increased pressure on the federal government to act, especially as former Save the Redwoods League Executive Director Newton Drury became NPS director in 1940. In 1963, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall highlighted the risks of deforestation in his book “The Quiet Crisis,” and the collective concern led the National Geographic Society to fund the redwoods expedition.
Not only were the expedition’s findings published in the magazine, but they were shared directly with President Lyndon B. Johnson. He used the report to bolster support for the Wilderness Act, which passed in 1964 and laid the groundwork for a national park in the redwoods.
That legislation had already been in progress, but the striking images and seriousness of the threat outlined in the magazine likely created public pressure to get the bill signed. The magazine combined urgent warnings about deforestation, noting that logging had destroyed 85% of the world’s old-growth redwoods, with romantic accounts of redwood groves and musings on protecting the forest for future generations. One author even wondered, “What if another champion [tree] lay just beyond the next bend in the creek?” (Hyperion, 379.1 feet tall, was found less than half a mile away in 2006).
The magazine became a symbol of the conservation movement, and Udall cited the expedition’s findings when proposing the creation of Redwood National Park. The Redwood National Park Act was signed into law in 1968, allocating $92 million to purchase approximately 58,000 acres of forest from logging companies, though the final cost ultimately exceeded twice that amount.
Tall Trees Grove in Redwood National Park.
60 years later, the grove is still a draw
The Tall Trees Grove remains a favorite among hikers despite its relative difficulty and the long drive to the trailhead. Easier hiking options like the Grove of the Titans and Stout Memorial Grove offer similarly tall trees. For me, the isolation, difficulty and uniqueness of the landscape were part of the allure, and I wanted to feel the mystique of standing under the towering giants National Geographic author Paul Zahn described as “some of the most extraordinary scenery in the world.”
Leonel Arguello told me the trail was a favorite among park staff, and park Interpretation and Education Program Manager Patrick Taylor said he adores everything from the gorgeous drive to the trailhead to the diversity of plant life along the path. But like me, he thinks the grove’s tranquil atmosphere is its best feature. “It really lets you feel the experience of being around the trees,” he noted, pointing to the relatively low number of visitors compared with other areas of the park. In talking with him, it’s clear he feels the same amount of awe I did on that day in October.
“It’s one of the places in the park I see people whispering when they talk,” Taylor added, “out of an implicit reverence for the ancient redwoods.”
The world's tallest tree inspired this California national park
By Suzie Dundas
Ask a nature enthusiast in California to name a famous tree, and they might mention Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, or General Sherman, the massive giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park. But in the early 1960s, few trees had names. Even fewer were recognized for their ecological or recreational value. Redwood trees, in particular, were valued for their timber — not for their towering beauty or environmental importance.
That began to change in 1964, when the July issue of National Geographic featured articles titled “Finding the Mt. Everest of All Living Things” and “World’s Tallest Tree Discovered.” The issue showcased vivid full-color photographs of the ancient Sequoia sempervirens, including a cover photo of National Geographic editor Melville Bell Grosvenor standing, dwarfed, beside the 367.8-foot Howard Libbey Tree.
For many readers, it was the first time they’d seen California’s redwoods, let alone grasped their monumental scale. The cover story is credited with sparking a national outcry to preserve the remaining old-growth redwoods. But for those involved in the effort to establish Redwood National Park, the publication didn’t begin the work — it cemented it.
“I would characterize that article and discovery of the tallest tree in the [Tall Trees Grove] as the final impetus for creating a national park,” says Leonel Arguello, deputy superintendent at Redwood National and State Parks. “However, the real story is much more nuanced, as the idea for a national park had been a national discussion with environmentalists and advocacy organizations and in the halls of Congress long before that article came out.”
The push for a redwood national park
One recent October afternoon, I stood under Howard Libbey itself — and didn’t even know it. Howard Libbey, also known as “Tall Tree,” no longer holds the title of the tallest tree in the world, as it did from 1963 to 1988. It’s now only the 34th tallest tree — and not even the tallest tree in the surrounding grove. Measuring about 363 feet, it’s seen a slight reduction in height since the 1960s, possibly due to silt deposits from floods or lightning damage to its upper branches.
But while it may have lost approximately 5 feet of height, it saved thousands of acres of other old-growth redwood trees.
The Tall Trees Grove ranks among the most renowned old-growth redwood forests in the world. Tucked deep within Redwood National Park, reaching it requires a 7-mile drive along a dirt road, followed by a challenging 1.5-mile hike down to the grove and an equally steep hike back up. Access is tightly regulated, with only 50 permits issued per day and a locked gate that prevents skirting the permit system. During my October visit, about 10 next-day permits were available online, and I snagged one on a Monday for a Tuesday afternoon visit.
Though each permit allows up to seven people, only two cars were parked at the trailhead when I arrived via the dusty, uneven dirt road. The trail descends quickly but also gives a taste of its grandeur quickly, as hikers will encounter the often-photographed “Tunnel Tree” about .3 miles in. The path follows the Trinidad Trail, an old wagon road that carried supplies to miners working along the nearby rivers. It drops roughly 800 feet before reaching the start of the grove. Fortunately, the National Park Service phone app, which has a Redwoods National Park tour that highlights points of interest along the route, adds an interesting layer of historical context — and acts as a welcome excuse for short breaks on the way back up.
The downhill is speedy, and it took me only about 25 minutes to descend, driven by an eagerness to reach the legendary grove ahead of any later-arriving hikers. While redwoods line the entire trail, when you reach river level, your perspective noticeably shifts. Instead of having an eye-level view of trunks while you’re above them on the trail, you’re now looking up from below, watching the towering giants swaying more than 300 feet above.
“The juxtaposition of tall, large-diameter redwoods and Redwood Creek, in a steep narrow valley bottom surrounded by more old-growth redwoods, is not duplicated elsewhere in the park,” says Arguello.
The grove may be modest in acreage, but it’s certainly not ordinary. Somewhat hidden at the bottom of a forested river canyon and far removed from roads and trails, Tall Trees Grove is not something you’ll find just anywhere in California.
The official “Tall Trees Loop” through the Tall Trees Grove starts at the bottom of the descent trail. At 1 mile long, it’s the easier and only relatively flat part of the hike. From the sign for the Tall Trees Loop, head left. It’s just a few hundred yards to the trees that graced the Nat Geo cover.
Many of these trees were once the tallest in the world, until other trees superseded them. Howard Libbey is just across the trail from Melkor (the largest tree in the park by volume) and close to the National Geographic Tree, abbreviated NGT but affectionately known to arborists as “Nugget.” At 373.5 feet tall, Nugget was the tallest tree in the world from 1991 to 1995; nowadays, it’s the third-tallest tree in the world and the tallest in the grove. That puts it just behind Helios (377 feet, in the park’s nearby Helios Grove) and 380-foot-tall Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, so threatened from overtourism that visiting it is now illegal.
The expedition spurred the government to act
The notion that a single National Geographic cover captured the collective public psyche to such an extent that it led to the creation of a national park may be appealing, but the NatGeo expedition’s discovery of the trees wasn’t by chance. Local logging companies had long known that trees in that location were extraordinarily large, and federal leaders were already well aware of the urgent need to protect redwood forests.
Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, played a pivotal role in redwood conservation efforts as early as 1917 when he took office. He used his political influence to urge conservationists to explore northern California’s redwood groves; those conservationists went on to found the Save the Redwoods League. The League became instrumental in acquiring land for Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in the 1920s and 1930s, and those three parks cover roughly half of the 132,000-acre Redwood National and State Parks system that exists today.
In 1913, the U.S. government declined an opportunity to purchase 22,000 acres of redwood forest for a national park, indicating federal awareness of the redwoods and the threats they faced from logging. This concern grew more urgent with the introduction of electric chainsaws in the 1920s, which intensified the speed at which the giant trees could be felled. It increased pressure on the federal government to act, especially as former Save the Redwoods League Executive Director Newton Drury became NPS director in 1940. In 1963, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall highlighted the risks of deforestation in his book “The Quiet Crisis,” and the collective concern led the National Geographic Society to fund the redwoods expedition.
Not only were the expedition’s findings published in the magazine, but they were shared directly with President Lyndon B. Johnson. He used the report to bolster support for the Wilderness Act, which passed in 1964 and laid the groundwork for a national park in the redwoods.
That legislation had already been in progress, but the striking images and seriousness of the threat outlined in the magazine likely created public pressure to get the bill signed. The magazine combined urgent warnings about deforestation, noting that logging had destroyed 85% of the world’s old-growth redwoods, with romantic accounts of redwood groves and musings on protecting the forest for future generations. One author even wondered, “What if another champion [tree] lay just beyond the next bend in the creek?” (Hyperion, 379.1 feet tall, was found less than half a mile away in 2006).
The magazine became a symbol of the conservation movement, and Udall cited the expedition’s findings when proposing the creation of Redwood National Park. The Redwood National Park Act was signed into law in 1968, allocating $92 million to purchase approximately 58,000 acres of forest from logging companies, though the final cost ultimately exceeded twice that amount.
Tall Trees Grove in Redwood National Park.
60 years later, the grove is still a draw
The Tall Trees Grove remains a favorite among hikers despite its relative difficulty and the long drive to the trailhead. Easier hiking options like the Grove of the Titans and Stout Memorial Grove offer similarly tall trees. For me, the isolation, difficulty and uniqueness of the landscape were part of the allure, and I wanted to feel the mystique of standing under the towering giants National Geographic author Paul Zahn described as “some of the most extraordinary scenery in the world.”
Leonel Arguello told me the trail was a favorite among park staff, and park Interpretation and Education Program Manager Patrick Taylor said he adores everything from the gorgeous drive to the trailhead to the diversity of plant life along the path. But like me, he thinks the grove’s tranquil atmosphere is its best feature. “It really lets you feel the experience of being around the trees,” he noted, pointing to the relatively low number of visitors compared with other areas of the park. In talking with him, it’s clear he feels the same amount of awe I did on that day in October.
“It’s one of the places in the park I see people whispering when they talk,” Taylor added, “out of an implicit reverence for the ancient redwoods.”
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