Our Trip to the Redwoods

I finally got to see the redwoods after living here for almost a year. That was mostly due to an unpridictable overtime schedule and money concerns, well for the first time in a while we were able to just go. I have to admit they are quite the sight to see, overwhelming in their hieght and width. As a matter of fact I couldn't back up far enough to even get half of one in my camera sight, even with a wide angle, I don't think even a 10mm lens could have got one. We had lots of fun just walking around seeing these gargantuan trees and the many odd forms they took.

We passed this arching tree on our way around the trail, even this one I couldn't due justice to its odd growth pattern. I grew out of the ground on one side and back into the ground on the other side with new growth sprouting along its arch. I can only guess as to how this tree took shape but we found it so interesting that we tried setting Mathias on it and taking his picture on it, he wasn't having any of though. We settled for the next best thing, Mommy holding Mathias next to it.

Sari and Mathias were peaking from a split that separated two redwoods, to tell you the truth this was more like a ring of trees with a small opening in between them all. Almost as if something had been there at one time and all these as saplings grew around it, now joining together to form a natural wall of sorts.

This was probably one of the shortest peaceful hikes/walks I had been on. Passing by the dense foliage in the half light of an overcast day that was cut even further by the high canopy of the redwoods leaving us to walk in an eternal dusk. you could see where people had trampled the forest over the years. At the same time you couldn't see the ground one foot past the trail edge.

These trees are so massive! No wonder logging companies practically logged them to extiction, so much useful wood in one tree.

This was just to cool to pass up, a great canopy shot with Mathias looking down at the camera. It definately gives a little perspective as to how tall these redwoods are. It was little shelf of roots at about four feet high that helped us out here allowing us to position Mathias up a bit while I took a picture from a little lower.

So here is the story behind this little sight seeing adventure gone wrong. I had heard of giant trees so large that holes were cut into them so that vehicles could pass through. Just the thought of seeing such a thing was interesting. Of course my imagination made everything much bigger than actual life. Well I asked the volunteer forest ranger if he had heard of such a thing, if it was myth, fact, or legend. He looked at me for a second, took a look at the park map he had given me only moments before and dotted a spot some twenty miles south. He didn't say much but the look he gave me was " Well if you really want to go see it...", he was not even slightly interested in the existance of such a tree. So after driving south to go whale watching we headed a little further south to find the tree. And there it was, kind of. There was this huge sign that read "YOUR TOUR THRU TREE!" with a big red arrow pointing in the right direction. HHMMMM..... a little cheesy sounding? Oh boy! We got there and found out that the stupid tree was now on private land and there was a four dollar fee to go see it. Obviously we paid out and went up to see the tree.

With much chagrine I had my picture taken with it, it really wasn't much to look at and definately not worth the four bucks paid out to see it. We found out later on the trip, by reading the park material we had gathered, that the original tree was a giant sequia in yosemite national park and had fallen back in the late sixties due to snow and wind or something. The tree in the picture was hacked through in the seventies about a year or two before I was born. So now that I have vented my disappointment for all to read I'll not speak of it again. Otherwise I'm glade we went and spent some much needed family time after a three week absence.