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How big is a Redwood Tree?

100 meters!

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Redwood Tree

The coast redwood is the tallest kind of tree on Earth. The explorer shows one 100 meters (328 feet) tall, measured from the ground to the top of the tree. Old coast redwoods are often more than 91 meters (300 feet) tall, and the tallest known, as of 2026, is about 116 meters (381 feet).

Size

Coast redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, grow wild only in a narrow strip along the Pacific coast, from central California to southern Oregon. The National Park Service describes old trees as often more than 300 feet (91 meters) tall and 16–20 feet (4.9–6.1 meters) across at the trunk. The explorer's 100 meters fits that description. It is a round figure, not the measured height of one particular tree.

Several conditions help coast redwoods grow so tall: heavy rain, summer fog that slows water loss, a mild climate, rich soil on river flats, and shelter from the wind by other trees. Fog supplies about 40 percent of the water the trees take in. Even so, exactly why they grow so tall is still not known.

A tree's height can also shrink. Redwoods often lose the tops of their crowns to wind and lightning, and they may never regrow to their old height. Two other trees are also called redwoods: the giant sequoia and the dawn redwood. Giant sequoias are larger by volume, but coast redwoods are taller.

Size comparisons

  • A 100-meter redwood is about 7 meters (23 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is 93 meters (305 feet) tall from the ground to the tip of its torch.
  • Laid down on an American football field, starting at the back of one end zone, it would end about half a meter (2 feet) short of the far goal line.
  • About 59 people 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches) tall, standing on one another's heads, would reach its top.
  • Hyperion, the tallest known tree, is about 5 meters (18 feet) taller than a Saturn V rocket, 111 meters (363 feet) tall.

The tallest known tree

As of 2026, the tallest known living tree is a coast redwood nicknamed Hyperion, in Redwood National Park in California. Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor found it on August 25, 2006. That year, climbers measured it at 115.55 meters by dropping a tape from the top. By 2019 it had grown to 116.07 meters (380 feet 10 inches).

Hyperion is estimated to be 600 to 800 years old, and its trunk is 4.94 meters (16.2 feet) across. Hikers looking for it have trampled the plants around it and packed down the soil over its shallow roots. To protect it, the park has closed the area around the tree to the public.

A long life

Some coast redwoods live for up to 2,000 years, and the National Park Service gives their average age as 500 to 700 years. Their thick bark protects them from all but the hottest fires. It is also rich in tannins, natural chemicals that keep away insects and decay.

A redwood grows from a seed no bigger than a tomato seed. Its roots go only 3–4 meters (10–13 feet) deep, but they spread 18–24 meters (60–80 feet) outward. With no deep central root, a large redwood can be blown over by wind, the most common cause of death for mature trees apart from logging. About 96 percent of the original old-growth coast redwood forest has been logged.

Sources

Scale of the Universe > Redwood Tree
Statue of Liberty
Although the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of America, it was actually built in France. It was based off of an ancient statue of the Greek Sun god Helios. The Statue of Liberty is pretty cool, even though the torch has been closed since 1916 because it is dangerous.
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747, which flies, is an airplane. Since 1969, it's been shorter than a redwood tree. Before then, it didn't exist, so it wasn't shorter or longer. And yes, its wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight (37 meters).
Blue Whale
The blue whale is the largest animal there is. Its weight, which is 180 metric tons, is greater than any other animal's.
ISS
The International Space Station is pretty cool. It floats around in low Earth orbit, and you can even see it from Earth! The ISS has had humans within it continuously since November 2000, which is a record for a spacecraft. (They weren't all the same humans.)
Football Field
American football fields are 120 yards (109.7 m) long, if end zones are included. Anyway, football fields are often used for measuring large objects. For example, "The Titanic is roughly three football fields long!" Football fields are also used for playing football.
Saturn V
Saturn V is the tallest and heaviest rocket ever! That's pretty cool. It was used from 1968-1972 and was the only vehicle used to launch humans far away from the Earth, to places such as the Moon.

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