Exclusive look: Inside what is left of California’s historic Big Basin State Park in the heart of Bay Area wildfires
Nearly all Big Basin’s iconic redwood trees were scorched, and while many escaped the blaze with foliage intact, dozens near the park center had been torched up to the crown and their tops had burned off or broken.
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BOULDER CREEK — The headquarters buildings at Big Basin Redwoods State Park are all burned to rubble, but the vast majority of the park’s famed ancient giant redwoods are still upright — although many are no longer standing quite as tall, two journalists from this news organization confirmed Thursday.
It took a nearly five-mile hike through the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains to reach what remained of California’s oldest state park after the CZU Lightning Complex wildfire was through with it. They found scattered among the tall trees some fallen giants. One, found just before the headquarters and with a base more than a dozen feet across, had burned and shattered, sending the massive trunk crashing to the ground, where it lay in a deathbed of ash and blackened undergrowth.
Read about how the wildfire destroyed the historic buildings at Big Basin, and toppled some redwoods
Other redwoods still upright were burning at the base, fire eating up inside their trunks, and these trees seemed doomed to fall.
Nearly all Big Basin’s iconic redwood trees were scorched, and while many escaped the blaze with foliage intact, dozens near the park center had been torched up to the crown and their tops had burned off or broken.
Around the headquarters and the nearby campgrounds, where happy shouts of excited visitors ordinarily ring out on a summer afternoon, and Stellar’s jays squawk noisily, silence prevailed, broken occasionally by the sound of a forest titan smashing to earth with the sound of a bomb going off. A single crow flew quietly through the devastation.
The park’s memorably rich and earthy forest smell was replaced by acrid woodsmoke from many smoldering fires.
A State Parks official said it appeared the fire in the park had swept through with high intensity.
Fire ecologist Kristen Shive, director of science at Save the Redwoods League, said that redwood bark is up to a foot thick and resists fires, but if flames burn hot enough, they can damage the layer of material under the bark, which transports water and nutrients, with fatal results. Still, she said, even badly burned redwoods may look bad but can eventually recover.
Staff writer Paul Rogers contributed to this report.