Tour Thru Tree – Klamath, CA

Zora the Explora squeaking through the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, CA

Part of preparing for a DohlTripping excursion is consulting sources like RoadsideAmerica and AtlasObscura for some off-the-wall stops along our route. That’s how we knew we needed to go by the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, CA, a (very short) detour off our route.

According to a larger article on redwood-related tourist attractions:

There’s no stronger symbol of the feud between Progress and Nature than the Drive-Thru Tree. Early Redwood promoters arrived one step ahead of the conservationists, and tunneled through the base of select giants, charging tourists for the privilege of making the twenty foot journey from one side of a tree to the other without having to go around it. Modern environmentalists have made sure that there will be no new drive-thru trees, so the remaining few are tenaciously preserved.

We paid $5 for entry, did our drive through, and then dropped another $4 and some change on a patch for Keith’s collection and a postcard. For us, it was worth it. Your mileage may vary.

We have a pretty small car, but there wasn’t a lot of room to spare!

Generations of Tour Thru visitors have worn the walls smooth as they pass through

The bathroom is built into a hollowed out section of a redwood. It has plumbing, but is not exactly “luxe”.

13 Aug This entry was written by KateD and published on August 13, 2016 at 8:50 pm. It’s filed under Mission: North America and tagged Klamath, Redwood, Redwood National Park, Roadside America, Tour-Thru Tree. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.