We drove up I-5 and then took I-580 to San Francisco and then back on I-80 north over to Hwy 101 to go to our first stop of the day: Muir Woods National Monument.
Muir Woods was the first place we had ever seen redwoods. We were impressed by them in 2003 and they are still impressive in 2015!
Muir Woods is one of the few remaining old growth forests containing coastal redwoods. In the early 1900's William Kent, a U.S. Congressman and his wife purchased 611 acres of land with the goal of protecting the redwoods. When a water company threatened eminent domain to dam Redwood Creek and flood the valley, Kent donated 295 acres containing the redwood forest to the federal government and bypassed the local courts. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the land a National Monument.
When it was suggested that the monument be named after the Congressman, Kent insisted that it instead be named after naturalist, John Muir, whose environmental campaigns helped establish the National Park Service. Muir never visited the monument but Kent and Muir had become friends and shared similar views of wilderness preservation. However, Kent's later support of the flooding of Hetch Hetchy (where we just hiked 3 days ago) caused Muir to end their friendship. (Wikipedia)
Because of its close proximity to San Francisco, Muir Woods National Monument receives about a million visitors a year.
Coastal redwoods will sprout and grow from the burl sprouts of older trees that may have fallen or been damaged by repeated fires or lightning. Hundreds of burl sprouts begin to come up around the circle formed by the root crown of the original tree...
...and a few develop into full-sized trees that today stand in a circle around the original (but now dead) trunk.
Shade-loving undergrowth like these redwood sorrel...
... thrive under the canopy of the coastal redwoods.
We continued our walk in Muir Woods into the Cathedral Grove.
Bohemian and Cathedral groves have the biggest trees in Muir Woods. The tallest tree in Muir Woods is 250 feet tall. They all look tall compared to Chuck! :)
With the way some of the trees were leaning, it's a wonder some of them were still standing.
This redwood had the biggest burl on any of these trees we had seen. It looked like a big beehive.
Burls are made up of thousands of bud cells that remain dormant as long as the parent tree is healthy and undamaged. Each bud cell is capable of producing a new redwood -- a clone that is genetically identical to its parent!
The bark of a redwood is between 6 and 12 inches which insulates a mature redwood against fire damage. However, if repeated hot fires burn through the bark and expose the heartwood to dry rot, later fires may hollow out the rotted portions and create blackened cavities like below.
We thoroughly enjoyed our walk through the quietness of Muir Woods.
Since we still had lots to see today, we only stayed in Muir Woods for about an hour but what a great way to start our day exploring San Francisco!
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