The Kalaloch Redcedar

roughly 1,000 yearsWestern Red Cedar

Half of this tree is lying on the ground. On 8 March 2014 a storm off the Pacific split the Kalaloch cedar down its length and roughly half the trunk and crown came down. The other half is still standing, and still alive. That changes what to expect. The figures this tree is famous for, close to six metres through and about fifty three metres tall, are pre-2014 numbers from when it ranked among the largest western red cedars anywhere. Nobody has published a remeasurement since. What you walk up to now is a ruined column of a tree, somewhere between eight hundred and twelve hundred years old, described by everyone who has looked at it as alive but in slow decline. It is worth the stop anyway, and arguably it is a better stop than it was. A cedar this size takes a millennium to build and one night of weather to halve, and here you can see both facts at the same time: the intact side going up, the wreckage of the other side where it fell. The Big Cedar trail leaves a signed pull-off on Highway 101 between Ruby Beach and Kalaloch. It is a few hundred feet, flat, and free with the park. Read the signs when you get there. The 2014 damage is the reason they exist.

Been here? Worth the visit?

The button above opens directions in your maps app. No public transit; nearest services are at Kalaloch Lodge, a few miles south.

Species: Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
Age estimate: roughly 1,000 years
Location: Olympic National Park, off US Highway 101 between Ruby Beach and Kalaloch, Washington (Kalaloch Big Cedar Nature Trail, a short flat walk from a signed roadside parking area)
Access: Free (within Olympic National Park); short, flat, well-marked trail a few hundred feet from a roadside parking pull-off on Highway 101. The access road has potholes but is passable by any vehicle.
Getting there: No public transit; nearest services are at Kalaloch Lodge, a few miles south.

This is the one entry on the map for Olympic National Park so far. See it on the Olympic National Park page. It is a Western Red Cedar; see every western red cedar on the site.

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This page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.

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