Drive-Thru Tree Park Leggett

6 Drive-Through Adventures for Socially Distant Explorers

"A 300-foot-tall marvel, the Chandelier Tree in Leggett, California, has a hole cut in its immense trunk that’s large enough for a car to drive through. The hole is six feet wide and nearly seven feet tall, carved sometime in the 1930s. Miraculously, this tree is so big and strong that is has survived the gaping wound in its base. The Chandelier Tree—which was named not after its massive girth, but its dangling limbs that resemble a chandelier—was carved during the unfortunate “tunnel tree” trend of the early 20th century. Several giant sequoias had large holes cut out of their trunks to attract the growing number of automobile tourists, with little regard for the health of the great trees. Luckily, environmentalists now work to make sure that no new holes are cut into redwood trees, so the few drive-thru trees that remain are precious and fairly rare. While some of the tunnel trees did not survive their maiming, the Chandelier Tree still stands today, attracting visitors decades later. The shape and style of the cars that pass through its trunk have changed considerably over the years, but the novel delight of driving through the middle of a tree is just as it ever was." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

These 23 Trees Have Seen Some Things

"A 300-foot-tall marvel, the Chandelier Tree in Leggett, California, has a hole cut in its immense trunk that’s large enough for a car to drive through. The hole is six feet wide and nearly seven feet tall, carved sometime in the 1930s. Miraculously, this tree is so big and strong that is has survived the gaping wound in its base. The Chandelier Tree—which was named not after its massive girth, but its dangling limbs that resemble a chandelier—was carved during the unfortunate “tunnel tree” trend of the early 20th century. Several giant sequoias had large holes cut out of their trunks to attract the growing number of automobile tourists, with little regard for the health of the great trees. Luckily, environmentalists now work to make sure that no new holes are cut into redwood trees, so the few drive-thru trees that remain are precious and fairly rare. While some of the tunnel trees did not survive their maiming, the Chandelier Tree still stands today, attracting visitors decades later. The shape and style of the cars that pass through its trunk have changed considerably over the years, but the novel delight of driving through the middle of a tree is just as it ever was." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

"Drive-Thru Tree So you want to drive through a tree? Well, you've got options. (At least for now. Since no new drive-through trees will be created any time soon, for obvious environmental reasons, the existing ones are maybe the last of their kind.) There are actually three trees in the vicinity of Redwood National and State Parks whose trunks are wide enough to accommodate a car. The Chandelier Tree, at the Drive-Thru Tree Park, may be the most well-known and most frequently photographed; pay your $5 and get behind the wheel. The Tour Thru Tree, near Klamath, is the other tree with a human-constructed tunnel. The only organically occurring drive-through tree in the area is the Shrine Tree in Myers Flat, on Avenue of the Giants. The opening in this tree was primarily nature-created—though at this point it's held together with some human help. Shrine also has a fallen tree with a drive-up ramp, a stump you can walk through, and a couple of playhouses carved from redwoods."