Jill & Me in a Redwood Tree

Jill & me inside a Redwood Tree at Big Sur, California, October 1990.

An old girlfriend & me inside a relatively small Redwood tree at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park which is within the famed Los Padres National Forrest. Big Sur is a spectacular place and offers some wonderful camping and lodging opportunities (we lodged). A trip I'd love to make is a drive from Yosemite to Big Sur.

These Redwoods are the tallest trees on Earth, some reaching to MORE THAN 367 feet with a diameter of more than 20 feet and at an age of 2500 YEARS! They're simply spectacular and fun to be around (and inside of)! By the way, those gaping holes in them were carved out by ancient fires.

The Redwood is a close cousin of the Giant Sequoia which can be found elsewhere, at the southern most end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in Central California. The Giant Sequoias are known as the "biggest" (i.e., the most massive) trees on Earth. The Giant Sequoias grow "only" as tall as 311 feet, but to a diameter of 35 feet wide! They are the fastest growing trees on the planet and are known to live as long as 4,000 years! Whoa Sequoia!

If you are wondering what the widest tree on Earth is, that honor goes to the Tule Cypress Tree. One near Oaxaca, Mexico measures 51.6 feet in diameter. Significantly wider than both the Redwood and the Sequoia, but also far shorter than either, standing less than 150 feet tall. Short and squat little punk.

Finally, I'd be remiss to not acknowledge the chick in the photo. She's Jill, my former fiancée. We drove down the Coastal Highway (Highway 1) together from San Francisco to San Diego in October 1990. Actually, she did all of the driving. Clocking in at 5'2" or so, Jill is significantly shorter than any of the trees mentioned above. C'est la Vie.