What is the oldest tree in Guerneville?
The oldest tree in Guerneville is Colonel Armstrong, a coast redwood of roughly 1,400 years standing about half a mile up the main trail in Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, on Armstrong Woods Road just north of town. Estimates for it run from about 1,200 to 1,600 years, and it reaches around 300 feet. It is named for Colonel James B. Armstrong, the lumberman who set this old-growth stand aside from logging in the 1870s and 1880s. The Parson Jones Tree, roughly 1,300 years old and over 310 feet, is the tallest in the grove and stands about a hundred yards from the parking area, so the two make one flat walk of well under an hour. State Parks charges a day use fee of about ten dollars per vehicle.
Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve is on Armstrong Woods Road, about five minutes' drive north of Guerneville in the Russian River valley. There is no public transport. California State Parks charges a day use fee of roughly ten dollars per vehicle, and walking in is possible when the lot fills. Both named trees sit on the main loop and the ground is flat: the Parson Jones Tree is about a hundred yards from the parking area, Colonel Armstrong about half a mile in, so seeing the pair takes well under an hour at a slow pace. Other named giants, the Icicle Tree and Burbank Circle among them, stand on the same loop. This is old growth that was never logged, because Armstrong, who made his money cutting Sonoma County forest, kept this stand out of it. In August 2020 the Walbridge Fire reached the reserve and crews worked to protect the grove; it burned at the edges and the big trees came through. Redwoods are evergreen, so any month works, and the grove holds cool air on a hot day.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.