James Venes

It was a long drive back home from Eureka (about 320 miles) but I spent a couple hours in Avenue of the Giants. Could’ve spent a bit more but I wanted to get home at a decent hour, which ended up being after 6 PM.

Lots of nice scenery along with that forest smell. Most of what I put up for this one is just from Founders Grove, which has a short trail that takes you around a lot of large trees, both standing and fallen.

As I was leaving that area I noticed a marker designating the level of a flood from December of 1964 a little past the Dyerville Bridge. Around Weott, I saw another marker that had to be at least 50 feet high. The Avenue of the Giants runs along the Eel River most of the way and it was nowhere near street level so I looked things up when I got home and found info on the Christmas Flood of 1964. Damn.

In addition to all the photos, you can also see some videos I shot here on YouTube. There are about 15.

Here’s Day 4:

Just past the north entrance/exit to the area:

Starting with the Founders Grove:

Check out the details of this one:

A tree that’s still around in spite of fire damage:

A couple more vertical shots of a different tree:

The Dyerville Giant, and a story on its fall. It’s hard to express just how massive this tree was while standing and walking next to it:

A different tree with some of its bark having fallen off:

The first flood marker I noticed:

Here’s some info from a section of tree that’s located outside the visitor center:

A drive-thru tree in Myers Flat. Yeah, it’s a private location now and it costs a few bucks to drive through (7 feet wide, 7 feet high) but I had to check it out: