Before we got started on our next hike we had some lunch – chicken salad and crescent rolls. Unfortunately there were no picnic tables in sight, and even with all these trees around there wasn’t much to sit on, so we plunked down on the ground and enjoyed our lunch until Neil had to go to the bathroom. This was only a problem because when we went to the restrooms this is what we saw….
….AHHHHHHHH…..obviously these people do not have children (and especially not Neil who refuses to go anywhere but in a bathroom). As it turns out, the Lord was kind and there had been a truckload of port-a-potties ordered that would be set up in 15 or so minutes.
“The grove provides an ideal environment for big redwoods: it's on a large alluvial flat at the intersection of two rivers, shielded from storms by 3000-foot-tall mountains to the west, yet still immersed in the summer fog that flows up the Eel River Valley. As a result the grove has a lot of huge trees, but in addition it also has very large area and is relatively open, giving it an unusually expansive feel. These factors make the Founders' Grove is one of the most impressive there is; it's really the quintessential redwood grove.”
The first tree on the trail is the Founders Tree. 
This is football field length in tallness! Here is the bottom of the tree with us standing around.
And here is the top of the tree.
At this point Ken took Neil back to the bathrooms, and Isaac who was in the backpack on Ken’s back. Then they came along the loop from the opposite direction until we met back up.
The next cool thing in Founders Grove is this tree. This “old growth” tree has been through many naturally occurring fires, yet it continues to live. Redwoods live a long time because they have very few enemies, including insects because the trees have a large amount of tannin in them, which insects find particularly distasteful. Fire is one major threat yet, mature redwoods have thick fire resistant bark and lack resin, which helps to protect them.
Here is another nearby tree hollowed out by fire that is still living.
The grove was very beautiful and peaceful!
Some more interesting facts: Redwoods are so tall that they live the three climatic zones at once. The base in one, the stem in a second and the crown in a third. So the base can be having a cool moist condition, while the crown a windy dry one. Redwoods need great amounts of moisture. Here the average rainfall is 65 inches a year, plus the summer fogs. Additionally the trees themselves help create their own mircoclimate as moisture evaporates from their needles. A very large redwood can release up to 500 gallons of water per day into the air!
Here is a burl growing part way up on a tree. Though burls first indicate injury on a tree, they’re important for repopulation. Redwoods sprout clones from burls after they have fallen to the forest floor before they die. 
Next up on the trail are some fallen trees. The redwoods don’t have roots that go very deep, but the intertwine with each other to help hold each other up. The kids had fun squeezing in the cracks of the decaying roots and shining a flashlight around to see how far into the tree they could see. Notice Mark down at the bottom of the picture. This was just plain cool and so big.
Look who caught back up with us and showed us to the next stop an even bigger downed tree.
This is the Dyerville Giant. It fell on March 24, 1991. It was measured at 370 feet tall – that is 200 feet taller than Niagara Falls. It was 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference and probably weighed over 1,000,000 pounds, officially one of the biggest trees. It fell as part of a chain reaction of one tree hitting another tree causing it to lean and then fall into this one during the rainy season when the ground was saturated with water. A tree 50 feet away had mud splattered 15 feet up its trunk from the impact of this tree hitting the ground. It will take 400 years or longer for this tree to completely decay and be incorporated into the forest floor. So here is us trying to find the top of this tree.
This picture is just on the other side of the tree with the pathway cut through it.
Here is the next picture down where you see Spencer standing in the previous one.
Still walking….
and walking….
and walking… Can you see Spencer’s red shirt at the end?
We found it!
Here’s Ken trying to take a panoramic picture of the tree, meanwhile Isaac had also crashed, only it was the good kind of crashing. :-)
Next up on the trail are some cool burl sprouts at the bases of some trees. This is the easiest way for these tress to reproduce. Eventually most of the sprouts will die leaving only the most hardy. This cool feature creates “fairy rings,” or a group of trees growing in a circle around an open area. This happens as the parent tree dies and decays leaving the sprouts to mature into adult trees.
Jessie was our “tour guide” and read to us at each of the stops. It was so cool to learn so many things!
Here’s another downed tree near the end of the trail.
And another fun hollowed out tree.
Then we stopped back by the fire trees at the beginning so Ken could see them.
And just for memories sake we had to get a picture of Neil’s life saver…
Back at the van we found a snack and two new doodles joined the other window decorations. One is Jessie’s the other is either Abbie’s or Spencer’s.
Hope you learned something new and had fun reading!
