I had just about finished my three-hour, Christmas Day sojourn through Montgomery Woods. It’s not a large park and I had actually transversed the looping trail twice already. But I just couldn’t get enough, especially the Grove of Grandfathers. My neck was a little sore from craning upwards.

I was ambling out of the grove towards the trail to exit the woods when a man aged roughly 55 stopped me. He held a fist full of papers in his right hand.

“Have you seen the biggest tree?” he asked.

Uh…I didn’t think so. Honestly, I could have walked in a circle around it and not even known it. They are all rather…tall.

“It’s here, you know.” he said in confidence. “It’s in this forest. Well-kept secret.”

His daughter and wife approached.

“Has he seen it?” asked his daughter eagerly.

Turns out that the daughter had done some internet research. The tallest tree in THE ENTIRE WORLD was stashed in Montgomery Woods. In a state chock-full of extremely tall trees, that’s actually saying quite a bit. The state likes to name its redwoods - the Icicle tree, Helios, Colonel Armstrong, etc. and this one is no different: the Mendocino Tree.

The Mendocino Tree stands at 367.5 feet, and it seems that its status as the ‘tallest tree,’ is somewhat in debate. There’s another tree that’s 369.5 feet in Humboldt State Park. But there’s some suggestion that THAT particular tree lost a few feet during a recent storm.

This distinction - tallest tree in the world - matters significantly to Californians.

When it was announced the Mendocino Tree was, in fact, the tallest tree, floods of people came to this tiny state park and insisted on seeing it. The rangers didn’t want people finding it - apparently we tourists tend to stomp around on the roots, pry off pieces of park as souvineers, etc. and so they try to keep its exact location a secret.

The daughter had scoured a few websites and had gathered a few articles suggesting clues as to how to find the Mendocino Tree.

“It’s not far from a bridge that’s made out of a fallen redwood,” she explained to me. “It’s 40 yards from that.”

“I crossed that bridge.” I said quietly. “It’s about a quarter mile back that way.”

The three of them got excited.

“Come with us!” cried the father. “Come help us find the tallest tree!”

Their enthusiasm was completely infectious, so of course I tagged along.

Bill, Vicki, and their daughter Sarah (home from Princeton) were spending the day hiking before a family gathering that night. They have a coastal home in nearby Mendocino (if you consider 28 miles of heavily wooded, deeply isolated, serpentine roads ‘nearby’) and decided to spend Christmas Day afternoon hunting down the tallest tree.

We spent the next hour as pirates seeking buried treasure.

“This is a clue.” Sarah pointed at the tree cut in half. “One of the articles mentioned this after the redwood bridge. We turn left here and count 40 yards.”

Bill counted off 40 yards. He should have been wearing a black eye patch and had a parrot on his shoulder.

They passed me the internet articles and, eager to contribute, I scoured them closely seeking extra clues. One journalist had written an alluring piece, A Complex Trek to the World’s Tallest Tree, and we used his teaser clues to get close.

“HE WROTE THAT THERE ARE NO BRANCHES UNTIL 190 FEET UP.” I’d call out to Bill or Sarah, as they scurried about the grove peering up high.

“It’s this one!” cried Bill and we all raced over.

“No, I think it’s this one!” Sarah yelled and then we raced over to see it.

It’s utterly ridiculous, ultimately, because they’re ALL incredibly tall and the difference we were trying to spot might be somewhere between two and six feet.

Nevertheless, I spent Christmas Day hunting for the tallest tree in the world.

Did we find it?

Could I show you where it is?

It’s a secret.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 12:52 am and is filed under Gratitude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.