NATIONAL PARKS MUIR WOODS Where Redwoods Age in Peace ALL EDITIONS

• Published in: Newsday
• Main Author: Tim Page. Tim Page is Newsday's chief classical music
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Long Island, N.Y Newsday LLC 13.05.1990
• Edition: Combined editions
• Subjects: Kent, William; Muir, John

Inside the gate and past the Muir Park gift shop (filled, incredibly, with redwood souvenirs - candleholders, bowls, tiny boxes and the like - all of which, however, bear the discreet notice that they do not originate from the monument), a visitor initially shares a well-beaten path with dozens of other guests. But then the paths diverge, and it is easy to find solitude. Indeed, such is the scope of the Muir Woods that all human activities are rendered lilliputian: One suspects that it could be filled with thousands of people and still seem unpeopled. In all, there are six miles of trails throughout the Muir Woods; visitors are asked to stay on the paths, and no picnicking is allowed. Both camping and campfires are also forbidden, for obvious reasons; the last major fire in the Muir Woods took place in 1845 and one may still see the scars on some of the older redwood barks. A tree 145 years old is young for a redwood, by the way; the oldest tree in the monument has an estimated age of 1,200 years. As in any great panoramic painting (and visitors to the Muir Woods often feel as though they have been dropped into some heroic landscape), much of the genius is in the details. The towering redwoods fascinate - my neck was sore for the day after my visit - but so do intricacies closer to the ground: the gray lichens that cling to shaggy bark, the matrixed ferns, the tangled tree roots half-overcome by moss. It is also possible to witness the process of