Those mighty redwood trees in northern California and southern Oregon represent one of the great wonders of this beautiful country. In the early parts of the 20th century when touring by car became a popular way for the middle class to travel the country, some people got the idea that tourists would pay to see and even drive through a tunnel carved at the base of one of those giant redwoods. They weren’t wrong.

Eventually, there were several giant redwood and sequoia trees available for tourists to explore this novelty. I must admit that when we happened by a sign offering the opportunity for us to do the same, we did stop to check it out. As I looked at what was done to this beautiful tree, I was filled with conflicting feelings about whether to feature our stop here.

The good news is that the process is now forbidden and there are no new holes being cut into the giant trees. As it turned out for us, our mode of transport for this trip was a Chevy Suburban, a vehicle that is too large to fit in the opening. Instead, we opted to capture the image of one of the several vehicles we saw pass through the tree on this day.

This tree, at over 300 feet (90 m) in height was able to survive the six by seven-foot wound at its base. Our traveling companion, Gary stands some 6-foot tall as you can see from the photo above, so there isn’t room for high-profile vehicles or trucks with large side mirror extensions.

The prayer on the sign we saw is a testimony that these trees should be respected and honored. By the way, in my research, I discovered the difference between sequoia and redwood species. The sequoia has an immense trunk with slight taper while the redwood is the tallest species and has a more slender trunk. The complete comparison of these mighty giants can be found on a National Park website here.

John Steiner