The is little new beaver news worth sharing this morning, and the entire country is apparently a dumpster fire of pain at the moment. So I’m going to show you something that you NEED to know about. Something that has been lurking in California’s lost coast and I never ever knew about until recently. Something that will soothe your soul.
The Candelabra Trees.
These majestic and twisted redwood trees grow so near the coast that prevailing weather forced them to grown inwards, rather than up, so they have several trunks supporting those curving limbs. There are several of them, twined along a ferned hill like sentries in a mystical forest.
‘Candelabra’ redwoods part of new Lost Coast Trail in Mendocino County
The north end of the new 2.3-mile trail begins with a short climb to a viewing platform and bench among the grove of “candelabra trees,” so named because each tree’s twisted, pronged shape resembles a multi-armed candleholder.
“We wanted the platform here because it is about eye-level to this,” said Paul Ringgold, chief program officer for Save the Redwoods League, pointing to a particularly impressive tree split into mirrored halves like a pair of moose antlers.
Ringgold said the trees were about 500 years old and their crooked shapes were created by violent windstorms that repeatedly blew off the tops of the trees, then bent any new growth.
Saved from becoming lumber because of their deformities, the trees instead became a well-known secret that enticed hikers into trespassing so often they created a “social trail” that Morris said she incorporated into the new trail as much as possible.
For centuries they sheltered on such an unmarked obscure land that the only trail was word of mouth. The Redwood League and the Mendocino Land Trust worked to make it more accessible, naming it after the tireless advocate who fought to make the California coast open to all – and believe me, it wasn’t easy keeping these beautiful places from being walled off by the wealthy.
The terrifying and majestic highway 1 makes almost all the magic reachable.
That world is called the Lost Coast, which so far has achieved the impossible. Too rugged to be tamed by pavement, its spectacular beachfront property remains wild, accessible only to humans humble enough to enter on foot.
And now even more of that wilderness is open to hikers thanks to a partnership between the Save the Redwoods League and the Mendocino Land Trust that carved the Lost Coast Trail deeper into Mendocino.
To reach the Peter Douglas Trail, named after the longtime director of the California Coastal Commission who helped write the Coast Act of 1976, find the mostly unmarked Usal Road at mile marker 90.88 on Highway 1, then head up a few bumpy miles until you find both a sign for the trail and a place to park.
So some day when you feel your own deformities keep you from growing into the sun like other trees, and when you aren’t sure your efforts will ever matter or ever be remembered even for a moment, think of the Candelabra trees and keep trying a little longer.
