Coolayla

The Avenue of Giants is aptly named. It is home to a large number of redwood trees, proclaimed to be the ‘highest’ of trees all across the world. All of them had grown well and are currently situated in Northern California.

These trees had survived natural disasters and man-made disasters alike; for those that had survived the ages, they now stand majestic and proud. Though they can’t help it if something happens to their base trunks. Which there was.

Four of those ‘hollow’ trees still stand, and are tourist traps in the Avenue of Giants. Why people think its worth spending money over going through the tree trunks (probably to satisfy a morbid desire of getting squashed by tons and tons of wood, rot, and leaves) is beyond me. But money is money. Welcome to the Drive-Through Trees of California.

The best two I could offer are the ‘Tour Thru Tree’ and the Shrine Drive Thru Tree. The former being one of the better drive through trees out there (you have a nice spot with the other people who also took the drive through) with added photo-opportunities and quiet lunches (they have a good lunch spot). The other one, is an almost-natural drive through, thanks to an ‘opening’ (encouraged, but not created) that existed probably decades back. They also have tree houses that leave kids wanting to live in them (just don’t leave them behind, kid traps are probably more dangerous than tourist traps).

Speaking of tourist traps, there are many to encounter after all that work with the drive throughs. Gift shops (like the Eternal Tree House) are here and there, and attractions (speak Hobbiton, that old Hobbit attraction) are abound. There’s oddities too, like the One-Log House (just one redwood log!) and the Wood Clocks (more like crosscut sections of giant redwoods); they’re nice things to see.

Hopefully, all this wood gets you inspired for some woodworking.