Visitors to world’s tallest tree could face $5,000 fine, jail

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tree enthusiasts who make the trek to the world's tallest tree deep in a Northern California forest will face a fine and possible jail time after park officials declared the remote area off-limits because of damage done by trampling visitors to the tree and surrounding forest, a park official said Monday.

The tree, a 380-foot coast redwood, is in a remote area of Redwood National Park and is not accessible by any trail. But that hasn't stopped scores of visitors from hiking to the tree, said Leonel Arguello, the park's manager for natural resources.

Arguello said the tree, known as Hyperion, was "discovered" by two amateur naturalists in 2006. By 2010, visitors started trekking to see the tall, skinny redwood after bloggers, travel writers and others shared its exact location online. In 2019, Guinness World Records declared the tree, estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old, the tallest in the world.

Hikers have bushwhacked offtrail into dense vegetation to reach the tree, making many social trails. The tree has also been damaged by visitors who step on its base. The area around the tree no longer has ferns due to trampling, Arguello said.

"The social trails have grown in number, the amount of garbage has increased, there's human waste that has been seen and as more people go up to this tree, they create more social trails and all of that is having damage impacts to the vegetation, to the soils and, and all of the garbage just sits out there," he said.

The area has no cell phone reception and if someone were to get hurt, it would take a lot of time and resources to rescue that person. That, paired with the trampling of the tree's base and the forest, led officials to declare the area closed — and impose a $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail for those who hike there anyway, he said.

Arguello said that Hyperion visitors may be disappointed to realize the tree is not really that much to look at because, from its base, all they can see are branches.

Brodie Johnson • Times-Herald The City of Forrest City gathered a large amount of water to be donated to the City of Eudora amid an emergency situation within that city. Anthony Crippen, left, and Kim McLaurin load a trailer with water donations that were being delivered to the city.