Founders Grove - How a Redwood Lives

A stop on Muir Woods, a free self-guided tour.

Stand still among these trunks and look up. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees on Earth, and the ones around you have been growing for centuries.

Their secret is a damp, foggy coast. In summer, when it barely rains, fog rolls in from the Pacific and condenses on the needles high above you, then drips to the ground. Studies have found that this fog drip can supply as much as a third of a redwood's water.

Redwoods are also tough. Their bark can be about a foot thick and is full of tannins that help resist insects, rot and fire. Look for blackened hollows at the base of some trunks: these are old fire scars, and the trees survived them. When a redwood is damaged or falls, it can sprout new trunks from its roots or from knobby growths called burls, so a single tree's family can live on for thousands of years.

Run your eyes up one trunk and try to find where it ends.

Getting here: Walk past the visitor center onto the Main Trail and cross Bridge 1; Founders Grove begins almost immediately along the boardwalk.

Did you know?: Redwoods have no taproot; their roots spread wide and shallow and intertwine with neighbors, so trees in a grove help hold each other up.

Photo op: Lie your camera nearly flat against the boardwalk railing and shoot straight up for a vertigo view of trunks converging into the canopy.

Nearby: Restrooms and water are back at the entrance, a few minutes' walk behind you.

Founders Grove - How a Redwood Lives

Stops on this tour