Inextinguibilis

Founders Grove — Humboldt Redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants

Founders Grove in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California, is one of the great stands of redwoods, and largest along the Avenue of the Giants; this is a place to revel in awe. Bathed in light through the fog, as if waiting for its portrait to be taken, this particular tree, burnt and hollowed at its base, but flourishing in its heights towering above me, spoke silent volumes as witness to time. 

Provenance: Phase One XT | IQ4.150 | Rodenstock 32mm

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For another study of old growth and renewal: redwoods regenerating around an ancient stump at Armstrong Woods.

Also in the northern California redwood wilderness: the quiet of Decker Creek in the Bull Creek State Wilderness.

For a very different kind of redwood sanctuary: the Cathedral Redwood Grove at Felton, Henry Cowell State Park.

Further south, where the trees stand unburned and the creek moves slow: Armstrong Woods: Lucem In Nemore — old growth and moving water.

Fine Art Humboldt Redwoods Photography Print

Fire-scarred coast redwood, Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California.


A fire-scarred redwood in Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods.
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Inextinguibilis: Founders Grove

The coast redwood at the center of this image carries its fire damage low — a hollow burnt into the base, the char visible, the wound old enough that the bark has partially reclaimed its edges. Above the damage line, the tree rises without interruption into the fog that sits in Founders Grove through most mornings, its crown alive, carrying the full weight of its needles. The distance between those two observations is what the image titled Inextinguibilis is about: what fire did here, and what it failed to do. Made in Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where the Avenue of the Giants reaches one of its largest surviving old-growth stands.

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