Corkscrew coast redwood

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park near Prairie Creek Trail

by Mario Vaden

 

This is the Corkscrew Redwood in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, and it's easy to find. As long as it stands, there should be a small sign a short distance north of Cal-Barrel Rd. along Drury Parkway, on the west side of the Rd. A short path leads down ... a brief one or two minute walk. There should also be a short spur path from Prairie Creek trail to reach this redwood.

At present ( October 2015), the National Park Service states on its trails south page, that the redwood is an excellent example of a "Fairy Ring. I do not agree. The corkscrew redwood is an excellent example of something very unusual. But there are far better examples of fairy ring redwoods like the Titanic Cathedral. Also, the corkscrew characteristics connote origin from several redwoods in close proximity.

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I tried to decipher the corkscrew redwood's form for years, and have a theory that fits all its characteristics. I believe the trunks grew around a medium size decayed redwood, large Douglas fir, western hemlock or Sitka spruce. And whatever was in the middle died, rotted or burned.

If a spruce were in it's midst, with several redwoods encircling, the redwoods would expand and press against the spuce's round trunk, leaving the concave shapes. The twist could be formed by one trunk falling between these and laying up there like a horizontal bar, then another falling trunk hitting that one, and twisting the entire group. I shared a video on Youtube explaining, and in my redwood blog, added a much more thorough post.