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Grove of Old Trees

Redwood Grove in Coast Ranges near Occidental, CA

A few miles west of the attractive tourist town of Occidental is the Grove of Old Trees, a small redwood grove owned by a Sonoma County land conservancy. Reached by a narrow paved road, the grove is on a broad, flat ridgetop that provides a quiet and serene location, with only an occasional car passing by on Fitzpatrick Lane.

The grove has been mostly logged and numerous stumps can be seen, especially around the edges of the grove. Although it looks like the biggest trees were cut, a few decent-sized trees remain, especially near the trailhead. Most of the trees, however, are small, which is typical for an upland location like this. Streaks of blue paint on some of the trunks suggest that the grove was slated for additional logging before it was preserved. Nonetheless, despite the presence of some old-growth trees, this is mainly a second-growth grove.

The grove is filled with dense vegetation, with a tanoak understory combined with redwood foliage extending to near the ground. There’s a healthy groundcover of sword ferns and other species, but no redwood sorrel. Despite all this vegetation, the grove has a somewhat dry look. The bark of the redwood trees has a shaggy, knotted appearance, rather than the elegantly fluted appearance more commonly found on old-growth redwoods. The shaggy bark seems to appear on redwoods found in dry areas like Big Sur.

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Redwood Grove