The Shrine Drive-Thru Tree in Myers Flat ranks among the oldest tourist stops on the Avenue of the Giants. Drivers have been easing through this redwood since the nineteen twenties, by way of an opening said to have begun with a lightning fire early in the last century and later widened for bigger vehicles. Large vehicles should still measure twice, since side mirrors have been known to snap off. The privately run stop also lets visitors drive over a fallen redwood log, and children can explore two two-story tree houses and a walk-through stump. A small fee applies to the drive-through, and entry is by the gift shop. The attraction opens seasonally and closes in winter, so off-season travelers should call ahead before counting on it.
Myers Flat has the Shrine Drive-Thru Tree — yes, you can steer your car through the trunk of a living redwood, and you absolutely should, even if it means turning back. There's a small fee, it's cheesy, and it's a hundred-year-old piece of American road-trip history. Back in the nineteen twenties and thirties, when the automobile was new and this was the only road north, the little towns along here were desperate to make you stop and spend a dollar — so they cut tunnels through the giants. There are only a handful left in the whole world, and most of them are on this coast. A modern park would never allow it, and I'll admit there's something uncomfortable about cutting holes in thousand-year-old trees for photographs. But the trees survived it, they're still standing and still growing, and the pictures your grandparents took under that arch are part of why anybody cared enough to save the rest.
Photo: SusanLesch · CC0