A coastal river floodplain is home to these giant, ancient trees, their trunks rising hundreds of feet to the high forest canopy. Scents of redwood and rich soil waft in the air. Daylight and moonlight easily reach ground level. Views across the woodland landscape are fairly open; most of the ground is covered only by waist-high ferns. Scattered huge, fallen logs are the only serious barriers to movement through the woods.
Dimensions Some of these redwoods exceed 300 feet (90 meters) in height. Diameters of their lower trunks range 6 to 20 feet (2-6 meters). The trees mostly lack the widely flared bottom profiles that are distinctive in some other redwood groves. Many of the open ground spaces between trees exceed 30 yards/meters, though some close clusters can be found. The land surface on this floodplain is notably flat, gently rising and falling by no more than six feet (2 meters).
Redwoods here are up to 2000 years in age. They are so durable in part because their live wood and bark effectively resists rot, fungus, and insect infestation.
In general, these trees only have branches near their tops. Their trunks rise as single columns for hundreds of feet (tens of meters), providing no perches or climbing aids.
The redwoods have dense but shallow root mats reaching only 3-6 feet (1-2 meters) below the ground surface. Roots provide nutrients and some physical stability to a redwood, but don't supply most of its water needs. Moisture for the upper trunks and branches is instead absorbed directly from rain and coastal mist in this high-precipitation environment.
Temperatures here are cool but moderate year-round, rarely dipping below freezing in winter.
Regular flooding inhibits growth of smaller understory trees and bushes here, so that the large sword ferns alone dominate the ground cover, obscuring view only of things lower than 3-4 feet (1 meter) in height. Other plants appearing among the ferns are trillium, tiger lilies, and azaleas. There are a few rhododendron thickets in the area. In season, huckleberries and other berries provide forage for animals.
Forest inhabitants include steller's jays, deer, pollywogs, raccoons, and banana slugs up to 8 inches (20 cm) in length. Salmon and rainbow trout populate the river. Black bears frequent the area, and mountain lions visit on occasion.
Where entire redwoods have fallen, their root splays overhang broad, relatively shallow soil pits with steep edges.
Bases and root tops of a few standing trees have large, bulbous wood burls, in some cases almost as large as the trunks themselves, possibly sheltering hiding places beneath their folds.
The tops of horizontal, fallen logs can stand 10-20 feet (3-6 meters) above ground level, with rare open spaces to pass underneath. Their rounded tops provide enough breadth for two or three persons to safely walk side-by-side, with elevated view of the surrounding ground.
In other places fallen trunks rest at a slant against live trees, even crisscrossing like jumbled matchsticks. The great weight of these logs makes them quite stable, if a climber finds enough purchase to scale their slanting bulks.
Some trees that die don't fall, leaving tall, ragged-topped pillars.
Rare tree bases are hollow, with enough space to house several persons, even mounts or carts. The ground surface within is typically flat.
Some tree bases have overgrowths of moss and delicate vines. This spongy, fibrous coating can retain bits of dust, soot, or other material that have floated by on the air.
While most fallen logs retain their whole form, some are split along grain into multiple, massive board-like layers along parts of their lengths. Accumulation of finer plant debris over centuries on a level 'board' surface can support an elevated, sheltered garden of small forest plants.
A character standing above the ferns has distant views in most directions between the trees, but is constantly aware that many things, even very large ones, may be hidden at any distance by the massive tree trunks. The sense of their own exposure can also be strong. Hostile observers could be unnoticed in the broken-up field of view, including winged creatures gliding beneath the forest canopy.
A character crouching still or lying unconscious in this field of high ferns would be difficult to locate. Upright searchers would be unable to see beneath the dense plants and their spreading fronds. Overview from a log top might help. A searcher might instead choose to crawl on the soil beneath most of the obscuring fern branches, peering a few yards/meters around in the dim or dappled light. This might set plants rustling and signal their own location. Hunter and hunted would be most intimately sharing space with some denizens of the forest.
Other spots for shelter and concealment include hollow tree bases, crisscrossed logs, and the low-headroom spaces between split layers of fallen tree trunks. An entire squad of fighters could hide out of sight from anyone surveying the land from ground level, standing at ready in a wide, 3-6 foot (1-2 meter) deep pit beneath a fallen tree's root spread.
During a river flood, water will move slowly in the shallow expanses of floodplain between these trees. If the water is only a couple feet (less than a meter) deep there, wading characters will be further slowed by the tangle of submerged fern fronds. Higher water levels would actually allow faster progress by swimming. In any case, the tops of fallen logs will provide dry refuge and fast transit routes.
Fog is a common occurrence here; blowing snow less so. The typically open atmosphere of this forest scene will alter considerably under those circumstances.
Climbing one of these trees would be a tremendous athletic and technical challenge. That could be the focus of a rite of passage or competition.
A character might experience lofty thoughts or new-found humility in this majestic place. A community or sect might visit this space for exalted rites or celebrations.
Characters who had been sleeping when brought here would be suddenly awed at the forest towering overhead; they might also fear that they had shrunk and the trees were common size.
An irregular cluster of burls on a tree base might be an ideal place for a large creature with texture/color camouflage to remain unseen.
The summit of a standing, dead tree base might be an ideal station for a character with distance weapons, or a group with ropes ready to haul up a net trap hidden below the ferns.
A moss- and vine-coated tree base might be a place for a tracker to note damage or bits of material left by recent events or passers-by.
Stout Memorial Grove, Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park, northern California. Trail is accessed from a paved parking area. Maneuvering in that lot may be difficult for large vehicles.