Redwoods

So I spent a good hour uploading photos to this and they all got lost in a computer-freeze. Too bad :(

I cleaned up my camp and tried making coffee like the Brew Bar at Santa Cruz (no luck) and then took a morning stroll on the Trestle Trail. It was pretty and along Mill Creek… until I had to ford a stream. I saw the bridge off to the side, but it was not in place. Apparently they had a lot of late rains this year and a lot of the seasonal bridges are not in place yet. Having waterproof shoes makes me a little more daring and it’s a good thing because there was no way to cross the expanse without boldly stepping into the stream. I made it across with minimal wetness, but wondered if others might be so lucky. Course who knows how many of those urban campers with their RVs actually step foot on a trail?

Because the redwood parks cover so much area on the coast… I had to drive all the way from one end to the other. First I drove north to Jedediah Smith State Park to secure a camp site. I had read and heard that this was THE place to camp because it was in an old growth redwood forest. I was able to get a recently vacated spot and set up my tent. I think Mill Creek was better because the redwoods are bigger and the stumps leftover from the harvesting in the 20s make the place look way cooler. Now I know for the next time. (Actually next time I want to camp at Prairie Creek because there is more access to trails).

I was making some sandwiches for later in the day when a family walking by asked if I minded if they took a picture of my car. Apparently they are participating in some scavenger hunt and needed to find a car with more than ten bumper stickers. With 20, I certainly fit the bill and the little ones were so excited to sit on the back for a photo. Next I headed to the southern end of the park system to really get my day started… at least a forty minute drive. I had to stop at Kuchel Visitor Center to get a gate code for the Tall Trees Trail and that’s the only place you can get it. I talked with the ranger who was uber-helpful, what I have come to expect from park rangers, and he showed me some things I ought to add to my itinerary. I headed back north and made my first stop at Lady Bird Johnson Memorial Grove, a one mile loop where Redwood National Park was commemorated. The loop was full of large trees and really quite empty of people despite the full parking lot. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to take my own picture with the timer so I could capture the size of the redwoods. Taking photos with nothing in it for scale does not give you a good idea of how large these redwoods really are… and even then I’m talking about the base. You can’t get far enough back to get a whole tree in a photo because there is always something in the way (probably other trees). You want to know how tall they are? Tilt your head all the way back until the back of your head touches your back…. That’s how tall they are.

Next I continued on the same paved road, up, up, up to the gate, tried my two codes til the lock popped and continued on down down down the gravel road. This gravel road was a dream with very few potholes and in much better condition than the paved road I took up. Seven miles later, I parked my car and started the Tall Trees Trail. The trees on this trail are one of the reasons that the redwoods were dedicated as a national park. They were the tallest trees known at the time, though they are not now. The hike is a mile and a half down and then a mile a loop. OMG (yes I just used OMG), those redwoods were absolutely massive. I think the biggest I’ve seen. I wish I had a tape to measure how big around some of them were. The grove is on an alluvial flat and chock full of large redwoods and some maples by the river. The forest floor is carpeted with ferns as tall as me and the whole place was serene and awe-inspiring. I took my time on the loop stopping often to admire my surroundings.

I found the perfect yellow banana slug and whipped out my fake banana to take a picture for Rich. Around the corner came a troop of five year olds and their parents and it took some explaining for them to understand what I was doing. But they thought it was funny and it helped that the kids knew it was called a banana slug. I eventually headed up, made the long drive up the gravel road, and the more harrowing trip down the paved road, went north just a bit and started my next adventure.

I was headed for Fern Canyon and was told I could take the road to Gold Beach and get quite close, shortening the hike by miles. No one told me what that road was going to be like. It was worse than Aaron’s road and Aaron’s driveway put together. The road was super steep, hard packed dirt, winding up and down and around all these large spruce trees and in most places was only wide enough for one car. Talk about tense. After you pass the little sign warning you about entering a tsunami zone, you knew you were close and out you pop onto a gravel track at the base of a tall cliff with the ocean on the other side. The trailhead was still further down the gravel road and the ranger warned me I would be crossing three streams in my car. Three! They weren’t really a big deal, but a bit wider than I expected.

Fern Canyon looks like a scene out of Jurassic Park or something. The canyon is pretty narrow with a stream running down the middle, fallen logs everywhere, and the steep canyon sides are green with ferns and other plants. It was pretty cool. I knew I was going to get my feet wet so I had my sandals on and I just slogged through the ice cold water when I couldn’t figure out how to cross. My balance is terrible and I don’t know how some of those people were managing with the rock-hopping and log-walking. I am terrible at those things and I didn’t even try. The good thing is that at some point, you are going to have to get your feet wet and that’s when everyone else stops, so I got two-thirds of the canyon to myself (that and it was seven o clock and most people don’t start hiking then). I didn’t really know how far it went so I kept saying to myself, well I’ll just see what’s around that corner. Eventually I found some stairs and with nothing better to do, I climbed them to see where they went. The stairs led to a trail that was on top of the canyon walls though spruce and hemlock forests. It wandered through a high meadow and I followed a muddy path through the meadow that took me to the canyon edge where I could gaze down at the fern-lined canyon floor I had just walked through. Pretty neat. The trail eventually wound down to the beginning of the canyon where I had started my walk, but there is no sign to indicate that the trail is a loop! On the walk back to my car I was able to see some very large Roosevelt elk grazing in the meadow.

I was trying to decide if I had time for one more hike before the sun went down… so back up the scary dirt road I went. I watched some more elk in another meadow at the beginning of that road and then turned north to get on the Drury Scenic parkway – another road much like Avenue of the Giants. The beginning is another elk meadow though and I watched some males that appeared to be hissing at each other, but did not start fighting. No bugling – hissing. Weird.

I was looking for a specific pullout so I could go find the National Geographic tree. If you read the magazine, you know that there was an article about redwoods a couple of months ago and they did a special fold out photograph of the entire length of a tree – that tree is in Prairie Creek State Park and pretty close to the Drury Parkway. Using the hand drawn map on a post-it that the ranger had given me that morning, I easily found the tree, wondered why they picked that one, snapped a few photos, and got on my way.

By this time it was getting quite chilly and dark, so I enjoyed the rest of the parkway and headed home. I stopped at Starbucks for some quick internet to make sure I hadn’t missed anything for my classes, updated my blog and facebook status, talked to Aaron, and headed home. I was quite warm doubled up in two sleeping bags, and fell right into a deep sleep.