Eel River, California

Travel Blog  •  Ben Keene  •  03.02.07 | 7:07 AM ET

Coordinates: 40 38 N 124 20 W
imageThanks to cell phones, digital cameras, Internet cafes and budget airlines, destinations that might have once been little known or sufficiently removed from the beaten path are revealing their secrets to determined drifters with greater frequency.

The natural treasures along the lower reaches of California’s Eel River —namely coast redwoods, the oldest and largest living organisms on the planet—remain deliberately concealed however. Slinking through Mendocino and Humboldt counties, the waterway helps give life to a large percentage of the old growth redwood forest left in the state. The river’s rich floodplains also support a wide range of smaller trees, shrubs, bushes, flowers and ferns. Wary of recreational climbers and timber companies, botanists who study these photosynthetic giants rarely disclose the locations of the foggy groves the tallest members of the species inhabit.

—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Tags: North America, United States, California

Ben Keene has appeared on National Public Radio, Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio as well as other nationally syndicated programs to discuss geographic literacy and his work updating a bestselling world atlas. Formerly a touring musician, he has written for Transitions Abroad and inTravel.


No comments for Eel River, California.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.