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Redwood National Park
Home of the world's tallest known tree on California's north coast
Somewhere in Redwood National Park stands Hyperion, a coast redwood about 380 feet (116 m) tall and the tallest known living tree on Earth. Researchers found it in 2006, and the Park Service keeps its location secret after visitors trampled the surrounding forest. Roughly 96 percent of the original old-growth coast redwood forest has been logged since the 1850s, and the park, together with three neighboring state parks, now protects about 45 percent of what remains, along with prairies, river valleys and 37 miles (60 km) of wild Pacific coastline.
Congress created the national park in 1968 after a long campaign by the Save the Redwoods League and the Sierra Club, then expanded it in 1978 to buy out logged-over land upstream of the tallest groves. Since 1994 it has been managed jointly with Jedediah Smith, Del Norte Coast and Prairie Creek Redwoods state parks as Redwood National and State Parks, a World Heritage Site since 1980. Roosevelt elk graze its meadows. The Yurok, Tolowa and Chilula peoples have lived among the redwoods for thousands of years, and Yurok and Tolowa communities remain active partners in caring for the land.