In the deep, still shade of Northern California’s redwood groves, you can’t hear a pin drop. Even your own footfalls are silenced, buried in the duff of the forest floor. The tick of time itself is muted. Water drips somewhere beyond your sight; little winds wail high in the green vault; you start at the sudden, sharp staccato of a woodpecker. 
 The drama that began in prehistory gives the traveler chills today. 
 In the Jurassic period (a.k.a. the daze of George Lucas), about 160 million years ago when dinosaurs ruled the earth and mammals were just being born, a sturdy plant sprouted and began steady growth into giant woodlands; it was the ancestor of the redwoods. Eras vanished, flying reptiles became extinct, insects and flowering plants and primates appeared, and by about 20 million years ago, redwoods as we know them today stood in tall parade around the globe, from western Canada to the Atlantic, from France to Japan. 
 Then came the glaciers. Arctic ice sheets crept slowly, inexorably south over lands and seas. When eventually they retreated, the tall trees had vanished almost everywhere - except in a sinuous slice of Northern California and in a remote region of China. 
 Only awesome, that much overused word, describes the giants of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Exceptional trees may reach a height of 350 feet, a diameter of 20 feet, and an age of about 2,000 years. For decades, the 368-foot Libby Tree in Redwood National Park, Humboldt County, claimed the title of World’s Tallest Tree. Then sometime in the 1970s, the upper 10 feet died, apparently as a result of the many visitors tramping across its root system. (The systems boast extraordinary width but are amazingly shallow.) 
Just this past March, a new World’s Tallest was measured by Steve Sillett, botanist at Humboldt State University. The 367.5-foot Mendocino Tree scrapes the sky in forests west of Ukiah, Mendocino County. Sillett also has measured recently the largest living Coast Redwood, the Del Norte Titan in Jedediah Smith State Park. 
 Highway 101, the Redwood Highway, speeds you from San Francisco north across the spectacular winelands and through the compelling little cities of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. The first really big show of Sequoia comes at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. 
 Through summer fog and winter rain, the forests of Humboldt have stood (with trillium and sorrel and ferns at their feet) since the bubonic plagues ravaged Europe; winds have whispered in their crowns since Charlemagne and the Vikings and the birth of Cairo. It is not enough to whisk by these wonders; you need to be steeped in their shadows. 
 Near Phillipsville, take the turnoff to the Avenue of the Giants, Scenic Route 254. (If you don’t, I may pelt you to death with Douglas fir cones.) The two-lane road parallels 101 for 31 miles. Some 53,000 acres are yours for the enjoying: picnicking, hiking, swimming, fishing, rafting, camping, or just thinking long, long thoughts. 
 Within Rockefeller Forest (named for a signature on a check) and nowhere else on earth will you find the equal of the Dyerville Giant in Founders Grove, once thought to be the world’s tallest tree. Felled during a fierce storm in 1991, it rests on its mighty side, its monstrous root system, several times a man’s height, upturned. The only possible comment is silence. 
 Thirty-one years ago in October’s bright, blue weather, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into being a richness of 50,000 acres north of Eureka to form the Redwood National Park, and Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the handsome nature trail that bears her name. Today, an unusual management amalgam of state and national authority oversees the Redwood National and State Parks, preserving 106,000 acres of Coast Redwoods and their environment. Three state parks fall within the boundaries: Prairie Creek, Del Norte , and Jedediah Smith. 
 Often, drivers whiz along on Highway 101, neglecting to take the exit ramp marked Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway through an ancient forest where roams the world’s largest herd of Roosevelt elk. Arriving at the complex called Trees of Mystery (of which more next month), they ask, “Where are the big trees?” Don’t allow that to happen. Take the Drury exit ramp north of Orick. 
 The wonders continue in Del Norte Coast State Park and in Jedediah Smith Redwoods where the ghosts and the spirits play; believe it. 
 Another time we will wander more slowly through the woods, stopping for picnics and long lunches and overnights in spectacular settings. We will see the forest for the trees. (Next month: A haunted grove, underground marble rooms, a mystery of trees, and a rogue of a river.)