Easily one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever stumbled upon in nature.

#1: Along the Avenue of the Giants

Along the Avenue of the Giants, there’s a random roadside parking area. If you walk the treeline until you find what seems like a random path, and follow it for a little bit around some turns, you’ll come across this variegated redwood tree.

Look how casually it’s just chilling there. At first, it looks weird – like, is that moss? It kinda looks like snow on it? Or maybe it’s weirdly burnt like so many other trees around this area..?

But when you get up close and personal… nope, just white variegated majesty. On a fucking massive redwood tree. Haha look how tiny Ike looks in comparison to the variegated part, then realize how small that growth is in comparison to the HUGE on it’s growing out of.

???!!!! I can’t comprehend how crisp that white was.

I think I’ve mentioned before – we are very into houseplants and have had a collection ranging from 100-200+ at any time in our house. If you know anything about them, you know that white variegation (“albo”) is very sought after – especially back in 2018-2021 during the “houseplant boom” and certain types of variegated monstera and philodendron were selling for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars…

I digress. My point is, it was so amazing to see a variegated redwood. It was the perfect combination of that houseplant love + our overall love of the outdoors, and a great way to cap off the last seven days we’d spent immersed in the area.

We found the coordinates of the tree by geocaching. We completed one geocache, which then unlocked the location of a handful of them. While reading about stuff while writing this post, there are plenty of blogs that mention their exact location too. Happy hunting. 🙂

#2: Neighboring this grove

On the way to the next one, we followed along the entrance for the California Federation of Women’s Clubs Grove. You can’t access it by car anymore, but walking and biking are fine.

I just love how many nods to women there are in the Redwoods. Those ladies were (and still are!) so involved in the creation, preservation, and maintenance of this area.

You’d never notice him unless you were looking.

The second one covered way more bushy than the first and a little less dense with the firm stark white branches and needles. These branches were more relaxed and kinda willow-y.

#3: Up in the air at Founders Grove (times three)

Last but not least. There are (at least) three clusters of variegated growth at the Founders Grove at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It took us forever to find them and I thought I was gonna break my neck looking up, but once you see them…

All of the clumps are extremely high up on the tree and look a little more golden-y than the other two above which were absolutely white.

We read that the Humboldt area has the most variegated redwoods in the world and nobody really knows why. I dunno, I just think that’s so awesome. To think that we’d been here two years ago and they were probably right above our heads the whole time haha.

I’m so grateful to have see them with my own eyes.

About Humboldt Redwoods State Park:
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=425

More about the Avenue of the Giants:
https://www.visitredwoods.com/explore-the-redwoods/avenue-of-the-giants/