If a tree falls in a forest of the tallest species of tree in the World, things might get messy. Understory trees often fall without much commotion, but the demise of this particular redwood was observed from all over the neighborhood. The forest that it inhabited is too crowded for good pictures of where it landed. I got what I could. Falling trees is one of the unpleasant and hazardous results of the recent epically abundant rain.
About twenty feet of trail dislodged with the massive root system that nearly inverted as it fell into the canyon below. The gap was less than fifteen feet long on the left and uphill side of the trail when this picture was taken, but widened as more soil collapsed into the muddy void below. Obviously, the trail is now closed. Repair is not a priority until after winter at the soonest.
The dislodged root system is about thirty feet wide. I did not estimate how far into the canyon it slid. Since I can not see the base of the trunk, I did not estimate how wide it is. The trunk extends diagonally to the right, where it is obscured by vegetation in the foreground. It broke many other trees as it fell, leaving the shattered trunks and limbs that are visible to the upper right and left. Some of the debris near the water was deposited by earlier flooding.
The trunk fell upstream into a curve in Bean Creek below, so almost crossed the creek twice. From this distance, it is difficult to estimate the width of the trunk. Because the top is not visible, it is impossible to estimate the height. If it did not burn up in the atmosphere, someone in Nevada might have received an unexpected delivery of lumber.
Tony Tomeo 
This is a regular occurrence here in the summer after soaking rains. Healthy trees, usually large, just tipping over. Sometimes there’s wind. Sometimes not. This is a particular mess.
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Redwoods are massive though. The displaced root system of this particular redwood is about thirty feet wide. That is almost as wide as an entire front garden of a home on a narrow old city lot. The trunk was tall enough to fall across a city block to obstruct the next street over, and contained enough lumber to build a few homes.
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What a scary mess. Trees are great to live among but can be dangerous. The one tornado I was in did not touch the ground but cut the tree tops off and smashed into roofs and knocked out the electricity for a week.
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Gads! I can not imagine what a tornado would do here. The tops of the trees are much heavier than the largest trees within average forests, and are more than a hundred feet up.
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Your area has had more than its share of extreme weather lately.
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Yes, it was the most rain within such a short time since 1982. The weather is dry and excellent now, as if nothing happened.
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That’s good. Everything can go back to normal.
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Normal?!
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Yea, whatever normal is.
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Oh, I do not even know what that is. We do not allow that sort of element around here.
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😎
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