The Redwood Titans

They are the tallest living things on Earth. Some are so old that they were standing when the Parthenon was built.

They are the Coast Redwoods of Northern California, Sequoia sempervirens. They stand side by side in the cool foggy valleys near the ocean like giant sentinels. Some climb 380 feet from their massive trunk bases to their airy canopies.

If you've never seen these trees, you really need to. They are wonders that will take your breath away.

I have started reading The Wild Trees, by Richard Preston, a book that seeks to illuminate the mostly unknown worlds that exist at the very tops of these incredible giants.

There are entire ecosystems alive up there, out of our view, lost in the mist. A few brave people climb these trees regularly to study them, and they have found new life and amazing vistas at the top.

So beloved and unique are these trees that most of them have been given individual names: Hyperion (the world's tallest tree at a hair under 380 feet), Stratosphere Giant, Helios, Iluvatar, Lost Monarch, Zeus.

California was once rich with trees like these, before "modern" civilization came along and cut about 90% of them down. Forty years ago there were hundreds of other trees as tall as Hyperion but they have mostly been destroyed. A last-minute expansion of Redwood National Park in 1978 is the only thing that saved Hyperion from a similar fate.

So, score another one for the National Park Service. I sometimes wonder if we'd have anything natural left if it wasn't for those people.