Ever since the 2008 Dog Soldier discovery in Redwood National Park it was evident more exist. Due to finds not published my main redwood page menu #1 is assigned to Emissary. Various albino redwoods were also found in Prairie Creek, Jedediah Smith and Humboldt RSP. In 2020, I also found an albino in Oregon. The unpublished redwoods also include diameter record Capt. Jack Sparrow (aka Jupiter) and a mega-monolith with zero taper along much of its mass. Early 2017, a favorite DARTH VADER was introduced. Huge fallen titans were also found like Lost Man's Fault. In 2019, more tall redwoods were discovered in Humboldt. March 2020, we may have found the ("Hacksaw Ridge") world's tallest Sequoiadendron (video) outside the indigenous range, near Eagle Point, Oregon.

May 2020, I added one more video about the Big Kahuna and photographing redwoods

About"official" for new finds, discovery practically never originates from rangers, NPS or Guinness Book. A small guild of explorers and experts find and measure, and when that alliance determines a new discovery it becomes more official than official because rangers or Guinness have no other cistern to draw from. Think back several world records. Each one was found then afterward relayed to rangers or authors. A national champion is not a champ because American Forests says so, nor a record because Guinness published. And presently the myth is vaporizing about giant sequoias being the largest or widest trees regardless what mountain rangers think.



advertisement



What does this all mean? For me ... I have seen the heart of the park where most people will never go, but my trekking pole is crooked, and my legs feel it more. These days I explore more slowly but do return to a few spots like New Hope Grove. I hoped to explore more around Devil's Creek but maybe someone new to bushwhacking can cover that. As stated below toward the end, your chance of finding a new top-ten redwood is maybe a 1/100 of 1% chance, but even in 2018, I encountered new massive coast redwoods I haven't seen before, plus a new albino redwood (2020) in southern Oregon.

The biggest reason for new discoveries was getting away from the Grove of Titans. For years people scoured Jedediah Smith trying to find that grove and afterward just kept going back again and again to admire that same grove or similar redwoods without searching new area. I did likewise briefly, but we shifted gears and started exploring Redwood National Park and finding new trees. So many discoveries followed, we didn't get back to the Grove of Titans for almost two full years.

The era of giant coast redwood discovery is basically gone. Research will continue but the days of hunting unknown largest redwoods is almost a thing of the past. The remaining old growth is mostly explored. To hitch a ride on the tail end of this era was like running for the last car of an old train and someone reached out a hand to help me leap on board the last train that would ever steam down the tracks. Discovery of new giant redwoods is vanishing like a whiff of smoke.

Some discoveries were not fully revealed, but any redwood may appear genericallly at the mystery pages (main redwood page menu). Regarding the one Big Kahuna shown above, Taylor commented (would) "not surprise me if the total volume of this beast is over 40K cubic feet" referring to just the main trunk. Compare that to old discoveries !! Melkor's main trunk is 33,500 cu. ft.. Del Norte Titan is 33,670 cu. ft. with 9.5% volume from 43 reiterated trunks. Iluvatar has 12.3% in over 100 stems and a main trunk 32,890 cu. ft. It reasoned redwoods this large remained in Redwood National and State Parks. Find more updates at Hyperion coast redwood

In 2014, John Montegue found a coast redwood in Redwood National Park with circumference 107.8 ft or 34.31 ft. ground diameter and 27 ft. dbh. Weeks later I discovered a redwood 27.4 ft. diameter. May 2015, John reported a record 29.2 ft. diameter single trunk over 25,000 cu. ft. (Capt. Jack Sparrow aka Jupiter). So many I quit counting. John's list of (everyone's) 18 foot and wider redwoods is approximately 400 total. The discoveries launched coast redwood ahead of giant sequoia for diameter and coast redwood became the widest species between 2014 and 2017. I added the Church redwood on the blog too, which is almost as wide as Del Norte Titan, with a cave that may be largest room in a living single stem coast redwood. The Church redwood also has huge volume. The previous link was a page, but follow this next one to my Church Redwood Video

One mystery unravelled! When John encountered the 29.2 ft. dbh redwood in 2015, I was curious where it could be that I had not seen it before. Months later during a bushwhack with Atkins, I learned the 29.2 footer was a redwood Thomas and I found in 2009 when we bushwhacked there, but left a different direction and didn't make it back to measure or photograph. Thomas and I measured only a handful of redwoods planning to return another year. This exemplifies what I wrote down this page about repeat findings. John encountered the same redwood in 2015, taking a definitive tape wrap. Due to the previous finding with Thomas years earlier, we call the diameter champ Captain Jack Sparrow whereas John calls it Jupiter. Whatever name you choose, it's not among my photos, just as Bigfoot and several other redwoods between 30,000 and 60,000 cu. ft. are not in my albums or website.

John gets credit for discovering (realizing) the diameter, and anybody else can pick whatever name they wish. It reminds me of a redwood "Redwood-Ed" in Prairie Creek's Valley of the Lost Groves. Ed Gilbert and John measured and named it around 2016, whereas Lowell Cottle (seasonal ranger) and myself tape wrapped it October 24, 2008. But I think Hildebrant or Sillett spotted it 15 years earlier. Some of these redwoods are bound to get double names and repeat findings.

While the era of coast redwood discovery fades into history, the frontier ahead is redwood photography. Photographers have barely scratched the surface. The heart of the redwood forest has never really been captured. It requires time and going places others won't go. This is the new era of coast redwood photography ... the journey continues. One other adventure I can share, was the opportunity to ascend some redwood canopy in 2019. I shared some about it at Old Growth Redwood Climb video

Continue reading below the image ... Chris Atkins shown for scale