Driving through the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, CA is a bucket list item for visitors to the Redwood National and State Parks. ✔️
It costs $5 (on the honor system), which is a little tricky if you don’t typically carry cash. We borrowed from one of the kids. 😁💰
My brother and I both have F-250s, and we were both pretty eager to see if we could squeak through this iconic tourist trap, without getting trapped.
I was a little nervous about getting stuck with people watching, so I parked and waited until there weren’t any other drivers around before I tucked my mirrors and gave it a shot. 😰
The actual opening is wide enough for a truck to fit through (roughly 7′ 4″), BUT it’s not perfectly flat/straight. So at any given point you might fit, but with a long wheel base, super duty crew cab like ours, a straight shot puts you on a tiny bit of a bind, so in reality it’s narrower than it is in theory.
My brother’s F-250 just absolutely would not fit. This was super disappointing. 😖
This made me pretty sure it was gonna be a lost cause for us too, but I had to try. 😬🤞
As you can see in the pictures, the opening in the tree angles just a little bit smaller at the top than at the bottom.
And that’s what saved our (truck’s) skin. Turns out, my brother’s F-250 had a very small lift kit installed, which pushed him up just enough that he couldn’t squeeze through.
Ours, being lower to the ground, had an inch to spare on the passenger side, and a quarter of an inch on my side. 🥵
We made it! 😊🙌
So can you drive a full size truck through this redwood tree? Yes, or no, depends on the width but also on how high/low it sits.
Have you tried driving through this one? Did you make it? 👀
There are a few other options (and a couple that are no longer standing):
- Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree in Leggett, CA
- Shrine Drive Thru Tree in Myers Flat, CA
- Pioneer Cabin Tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park (sadly fell in 2017)
- Wawona Tree in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park (toppled in ’69, so big bonus points if you checked this one off your list!)
- Tunnel Log in Sequoia National Park (this was our first, but it hardly counts 😂)
Share your thoughts