Trees to see, from Seaside to San Diego

Sunset, May, 1995 by Bill Crosby

Poet Joyce Kilmer's famous lines about no poem being lovely as a tree have no detractors among our readership: here are some of the landmark trees of the West over which Sunset readers rhapsodize.

"We Oregonians dearly love our trees!!" writes Portland reader Joan Anderson. Her favorite is just southeast of Seaside on the Oregon coast. "It's the largest Sitka spruce in the United States," she says. So does the sign beside the 216-foot-tall tree, which is well over 700 years old. "It was a sapling shortly after the Magna Carts was signed," says Jeffrey Birmingham, Clatsop County parks supervisor. The tree is in Klootchy Creek County Park, about 2 miles east of the Cannon Beach Junction on U.S. Route 26.

Several readers who wrote to praise other specimens still tossed in a line like "Then, of course, there is the Avenue of the Giants." So, of course, we can't neglect a given. Numerous groves demand pause as you drive this remarkable 33-mile side road along U.S. Highway 101 between Garberville and Scotia in northwestern California. Though the drive itself is magnificent, you must get out of your car and walk through the coast redwoods to truly appreciate their scale and grandeur.

The famous Hooker Oak of Chico, California, from which Errol Flynn and his band of merry men pounced on passersby in the landmark 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood, blew over in a windstorm in 1977. But there 's another giant oak just south of town that may be even more familiar to many of us, According to Debbie Hale of Elk Grove, California, this stately blue oak in the middle of a golden field often appears in commercials. To see it,head south from Chico on State 99. The tree is on private property on the east side of the road about 4 miles out of town, but the view of it is public.

"This may sound funny from someone from the Evergreen State," writes Yelm, Washington, reader G. Q. Banghart, "but my favorite tree in all the West is in California. It's a gigantic live oak located on the south side of the Monterey-Salinas Highway just as you leave the Salinas Valley and start into the turns leading tO the Laguna Seca Raceway."

Not much to go on, so we called Monterey County Parks. Dave Steaffens, manager for the north county parks system, says it's oak alley out there. "There are so many big trees out along that stretch of State 68 between the Salinas River and Laguna Seca, hundreds of trees fit that description," he says. "You might want to walk through Toro County Park about 5 miles west of Salinas on 68; there are some beautiful live oaks around the picnic area there."

The Moreton Bay fig tree at the Santa Barbara train depot garnered a number of votes, Laura Vivanco writes from Mexico City: "For many, the novelty of the tree was taken away in recent years by the presence of the homeless under its branches, but for others the tree continues to add character and atmosphere to the city." The tree, and depot, are where U.S. 101 crosses Chapala Street. At 78 feet tall, with a 174-foot canopy, the 118-year-old tree is hard to miss.

Cullette Carnohan from Valrico, Florida, waxes poetic about the giant tree in San Diego's Balboa Park. Although it's widely referred to as a rubber tree, it's actually a Moreton Bay fig like the one in Santa Barbara. It's on the lawn at the north side of the natural history museum.

"Of all the things to see there - the world-famous zoo, the space theater, the art museum, the museum of natural history, the botanical building - that tree stands out," Carnohan writes. "People there take it for granted, but I don't think we can ever be too careful of the natural works that always outshine anything that man can possibly dream of making."

We couldn't agree more. With apologies to Mr. Kilmer: This verse sits inked on former tree, Perhaps 'twas nobler previously.