Muir Woods National Monument is 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge just off of Califoria Highway 1. The park's 560 acres include 6 miles of walking trails. The main, mostly level trails along the canyon floor are paved. Unpaved trails lead up out of the canyon and connect with trails in Mt. Tamalpias State Park.
Coast redoods
grow in a narrow, 500-mile-long discontinuous strip of Pacific coast
from sothern Oregon to south of Monterey, CA. They grow best in areas
with moderate temperatures and protection from wind ans salt spray.
They also need substantioal soil moistrue from rainfall and summer
fog.
Muir Woods'
tallest redwood is 252 feet; the thickest is nearly 14 feet across.
The oldest redwood here is at least 1,000 years old. Most of the
mature trees are between 500 and 800 years old. The closely related
giant sequoia grows larger in diameter and greater in bulk but not
nearly as tall.
Redwoods
flourish only in coastal California's fog belt. Frequent fog supplies
critical moisture during the dry season. Condensing on needles and
leaves, it drips to the forest floor. It also decreases water loss
from trees by evaporation and transpiration. Winter is the wet
season, averaging 40 inches of rainfall.
I have no idea
what the tree behind me here is. I just thought that it was really
cool. <grin>