Hikers to iconic redwood tree leave trash, poop. Now California wonder is off-limits

Visits to the world’s tallest tree in Redwood National Park in California are now off-limits after hikers damaged the forest and left a mess, rangers reported.

There’s no trail to Hyperion, dubbed the world’s tallest tree at 380 feet high in 2006, so visitors must hike cross-country to see it, trampling vegetation and damaging the coast redwood’s root base, rangers said in a statement. Ferns no longer grow around the tree, the park said. And those aren’t the only problems.

“There was trash, and people were creating even more side trails to use the bathroom,” Leonel Arguello, the park’s chief of natural resources, told SFGate. “They leave used toilet paper and human waste – it’s not a good thing, not a good scene.”

Hyperion is located deep within the 132,000-acre state and national park north of Eureka near the Oregon border.

“Despite the difficult journey, increased popularity due to bloggers, travel writers, and websites of this off-trail tree has resulted in the devastation of the habitat surrounding Hyperion,” the statement reads.

The park doesn’t want to build a permanent trail to the tree since it will eventually be dethroned as the world’s tallest, Arguello told SFGate.

And rangers worry that off-trail hikers could become hurt and require rescue.

“Located in an area with no cell phone reception and spotty GPS coverage, a small injury could be dangerous,” rangers wrote.

As a result, rangers have placed the area around Hyperion off-limits to hikers and visitors, the park said.

“As a visitor, you must decide if you will be part of the preservation of this unique landscape - or will you be part of its destruction?” rangers said.

Unauthorized visitors could face up to a $5,000 fine and six months in jail, rangers said.

Visitors often feel they won’t make much of an impact since they’re only one person, but thousands of others are thinking the same thing, the park said.

“Although you may feel like you are not making an impact, many people making a small change creates a lasting and devastating effect,” rangers said.