Sandworm Tree

Along the eastern side of the Muir Trail, as it leads up the hill from the Boardwalk and turns right alongside University Boulevard, on the opposite side of the trail from the Big Burl Tree, is a large, long, undulating, fallen dead tree with a gaping root ball. The tree resembles the sandworm that lived on the planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert's 1965 best-selling science fiction novel Dune and in the subsequent 1984 movie Dune. The root ball resembles the worm’s open mouth. Denis Villeneuve is remaking Dune with a Part 1 and a Part 2 for 3 movies in total. Dune 2 opened in 2021 and won 6 Oscars at the 2022 Academy Awards.