Arco Giant coast redwood .. #11

Copyright 2009 - 2015 by Mario Vaden

 

Arco Giant is a titan coast redwood located south of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The 11th largest coast redwood (2013)

Its actually in Redwood National Park, and was the 2nd largest in that park. Melkor aka Fusion Giant is larger in Redwood National Park. This is a very stout and ancient looking redwood. Much of the upper trunk is in view. The lower trunk has another angle besides what you see below which shows much more of the basal area, especially if you want to photograph, or stand by it for scale. To the right, you can see me behind salmonberry.

Few being one of the largest famous redwoods, it was a surprise few people look for it. If you happen to locate it, you can find a spot to minimize impact. As of 2015, today, it remains standing.

So many people are curious about Del Norte Titan or Lost Monarch from what I've read online. I'm surprised that more folks have not been on the lookout because the base was only 18 inches or so narrower than the trunk of Lost Monarch. For the average visitor, that's virtually the same trunk size.

Arco Giant displays a great amount more trunk up above, whereas Lost Monarch cloaks 95% of its stem. For that reason, Arco Giant appear to be much bigger when you look at it.

If you stand in the parking lot by the Prairie Creek redwoods visitor center and look at the forest to the south between there and Lost Man Creek trail access, that's where you need to look. But closer to Prairie Creek than to Lost Man Creek. And to quote Dr. Robert Van Pelt who wrote Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast "Arco Giant defines the word character"

The land was purchased from the Arcata Redwood Company years ago. Hence the name Arco for this redwood. This is one of the few top 10 or 12 largest coast redwoods not discovered by Michael Taylor. A photo of this redwood appeared in the 1964 National Geographic Magazine July issue. Last time I looked, National Geographic had that one available online in an archive. A storm in January 1998 broke a big piece from one of the large stems of the north facing canopy side.

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For reference, the 2009 measurements were: 262' or 79.8 meters tall. Van Pelt listed 24.4' as the trunk diameter in 2001. This should was the 11th largest known coast redwood, but that changed after various post-2013 new discoveries.