The Redwoods

Part of this trip is seeing the things you always hear about. The redwoods were no exception and they did not disappoint.

Coast redwoods are found only in northern California.  Redwoods National Park is surrounded by many smaller state parks, all of which cooperate for the sake of visitors.  A lot of the conservation of the redwoods has been through private donations, which means most of the groves are named after their patron.

Our first view of the giant trees was driving down the highway, but we were really wowed when we got onto one of the back roads.  This is a “scenic drive”, an old stagecoach road that they’ve thought better of paving put still maintain very well.  Notice the size of our car.

The feeling we immediately got in the redwood forests was a sense of peace, or calmness. There was an overwhelming pine smell, like the best whiff of Christmas.

We did a few small hikes inside the National Park which got us a little deeper into the woods.

We also drove up to a lookout point on the coast.

And who doesn’t like a gratuetous “This tree is SO much bigger than me!” shot?

Check out this slug.

One of the evenings we spent camped slightly up off the road at a basic campsite in the National Park along the coastline. We cooked dinner down in the parking lot and were awed by the sunset on the water.