Crews for Redwood National and State Park dynamited this fallen redwood on Newton P. Drury Scenic Parkway near Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Photo courtesy Elham Vali Khojeini.
The explosion wasn’t anywhere as dramatic as when rangers blew up a whale that washed ashore a few years ago, but trail crews at Redwood National and State Park dynamited a giant redwood tree that fell on Newton P. Drury Scenic Parkway and hope to reopen the famous road by Friday.
The tree, a coastal redwood that was eight feet in diameter, was one of several that fell in a big wind and rain storm in October, and there was no way to move it, reported Debbie Savage, North District Supervisor for Redwood National and State Parks.
I was at the park when it went down and rangers closed the road just beyond Elk Meadow, a short distance north from the visitor center at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Savage rode her bike out to see the damage and located the downed giant near Mile Marker 132.2 and measured the distance at six miles from the Visitor Center.
Barring too much slopover from a storm heading for Oregon, crews plan to reshape the inslope of the road, dig out the cracked roadway, then repave it and open the road by Friday, said Jeff Denny at the park’s visitor center.
The Parkway is a landmark drive that starts at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, just north of Orick in the Redwood Empire, and runs through a forest of giant redwoods that includes several “Champion Trees,” that is, world-class in size.
At the road’s entrance, just beyond Elk Prairie, the first grove on the right is called the Atlas Grove. The procession of giants that follow make the trip one of America’s landmark drives. With the road closed this month, it has provided a rare opportunity to ride a bike or hike the route with no traffic.
Info: Visitor Center, (707) 465-7765 or http://www.nps.gov/redw.
Here’s the video. The action starts around 2:50:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Feel great in the next 24 hours: Hike. Bike. Camp. Fish. Boat. Wildlife watch. Explore.
For the new edition of California Camping, go to http://74.220.215.219/~tomstien/books/california-camping/
To see the post at the San Francisco Chronicle, go to: http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2011/11/15/park-dynamites-fallen-redwood/
Leave A Comment