Above, the Red Chief Tree still standing tall and its unlucky former neighbor next to the west
Last weekend we dropped by the Alder Creek Grove to see some more of the grove's most scenic examples, as recommended by Sue Cag of ilovetrees.net. She was good enough to give me a tour around a few of the larger remaining ones that I could measure and show me some of the grove's trees with the most character. When you have seen as many trees as we have, you grow to appreciate ones that stand out for their unique features, whether they be good or bad.
I got dimensions on a couple of trees in the grove, the tree in front of one of her neighbors' cabin, and another called the Heart Tree.
Below are the measurements I got on the two trees.
Tree NameHeightGroundDBHTrunk Vol. (ft) Perim.(ft) (ft) (cu.ft.) Heart 170 74.7 17.0 21,481 Scotts Tree 240 66.3 16.7 23,823
Sue also showed me the Grand Snag, but it is very burned at this point. I am going to see if I can come up with an estimate of its former size based on the circumferences on its remaining base and some old pics from before last year's fire.
Large sequoias below are the Heart in the first two pics and Scotts Tree in the last pic.
We also visited the fallen remains of the King David Tree in McIntyre Grove since the burn to see if any of the carcass was still present. It is a shadow of its former glory, but this is what is still there.
Below are some post-fire pics of trees in the Long Meadow Grove that are standouts for size and well known. The top row of five are of the Red Chief, which I am happy to say is in quite good shape after the fire last year. A lot of the trees on the way up to the best part of the upper grove were very badly burned and probably will not survive. It's fortunate that the largest in the grove was spared.
The second row is the Grizzly Jr tree above the Red Chief, a gnarly, unique-looking specimen. It didn't do quite so well in the recent fire but is still in one piece and vertical, a win in my book, and the sad site of the remains of the Graffiti Stump.
The third row is a couple of pics of the large tree at the south end of Long Meadow, one of Spike, and the other of the largest one I measured this weekend, the tree listed in the Long Meadow maps as "Sequoia with Fir."
Some measurements on a few Long Meadow trees of interest in the above pics are shown below:
Tree NameHeightGroundDBHTrunk Vol. (ft) Perim.(ft) (ft) (cu.ft.) Large Tree on 100 Giants Trail with fir 217 83.5 22.1 25,095 Spike 224 83.6 20.8 22,611 Grizzly Jr 166 74.3 16.4 18,500 Large tree on the south end of the meadow 231 67.9 16.6 16,148