What is the oldest tree in Palo Alto?
The oldest tree in Palo Alto is El Palo Alto, the coast redwood the city takes its name from, estimated at about a thousand years and by some accounts a little over eleven hundred. It stands in El Palo Alto Park on the bank of San Francisquito Creek by Alma Street, next to the Caltrain tracks, free and reachable at any hour. It appears on the city seal, and a Spanish expedition is recorded camping at this creek in 1769.
El Palo Alto Park is a small strip on the bank of San Francisquito Creek by Alma Street, where the Caltrain corridor crosses it. It is walkable from downtown Palo Alto and from the University Avenue station, free, open, and reachable at any hour. There is one tree here that anybody comes for. It is not the largest redwood you will ever see, and that is the story rather than a disappointment. It measured 162 feet in 1930 and stands at about 110 today, roughly thirty three and a half metres, with a dead top, because the water table beneath the creek was drawn down between 1865 and 1955 and the crown died back as the water went. What is unusual is how closely it is now watched. A donated assessment in March 2025 ran ground-penetrating radar beneath it, excavated the roots with compressed air, flew a drone through the crown and left a prism on the trunk to measure movement. The finding was decay and a dead top on sound buttress roots.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.