8/22 - Redwoods, Day 1

The weather in our campground has been swinging wildly between 52 and 55 degrees today. It was 52 all night (at least every time I looked) and the same when we got up this morning. When we got back from our daily excursion at 4:00 it was up to 55. It's now all the way down to 50. This is probably because the fog has been sitting on us like a wet blanket for at least 30 hours. 


An interesting thing about Crescent City, besides the weather, is that it's one of the most dangerous places on the west coast for tsunamis. It's had 34 of them. Approximately 60 blocks of the town were destroyed by the tsunami which hit after the 1964 Alaska earthquake. There are tsunami evacuation signs everywhere (they're also everywhere else along the coast). They say that you may have just a few minutes to get to high ground once the warning is given but "take your pets to keep them safe."  If one hit while we were away sight-seeing, maybe our 5th wheel would float and the pets would be okay while we were looking for a hill to climb. One more day here and it will no longer be something to wonder about.


We spent the day driving 45 miles down the coast, in and out of the national and state parks which are devoted to preserving the coast redwoods and their habitat. They were very nearly exterminated by the greed and short-sightedness of the logging industry in the 1800's and 1900's. 


Part of our drive was on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway which parallels Hwy 101 for several miles. There are numerous trailheads on the parkway, including the ones at The Big Tree wayside. We checked out the tree and took the short trail with the Cathedral Trees.

A lot of today's pictures have one or the other of us in them because pictures don't show the size of the trees without a person for perspective.  This is the base of the Big Tree, one of the oldest and biggest trees easily reached in the parks. It is estimated to be 1500 years old. Redwoods can reach the age of 2000+ years. (Sequoias can get to 3000+ years.)

The Big Tree with Jim in front for perspective. It's 304 feet tall (not close to the 379 foot height redwoods can reach), 68 feet around and 21.6 feet in diameter. Very impressive.

Looking up to the tops of these super-tall trees is enough to make one fall over backwards. The forest canopy has its own ecosystem with birds and animals that never come to the ground. The marbled murrelet is a beautiful little bird which nests only on the high branches of redwoods. The parents leave their single chick in the nest while they fly to the ocean for fish to feed it. The species is endangered because of the loss of coast redwood habitat which is down to 4% of what it once was. Another danger is predation by ravens, crows and Steller's jays which eat the eggs and chicks if they find them. The presence of these predators has increased because of humans feeding them, intentionally or otherwise. They are so intelligent they never forget where they've found food. There are signs everywhere to clean up every crumb of food so as not to attract them.

The massive remains of a redwood which died long ago. This tree is so huge the picture looks like it's been photoshopped with Jim added afterwards, but this is the real thing. 

 Another giant with Jim coming in handy for perspective. He wondered why I was taking so many pictures of him but you really can't get an idea of how huge these trees are without something familiar to measure them against.

This one has a couple of extra people in it for variety. Don't ask why the man on the left looks like he's about to kick his wife. I have no idea what he was doing unless he was balancing his camera on his knee.

After leaving the Cathedral trees and the parkway, we went a few miles further to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which is hundreds of feet higher in elevation. There's more light and the really big trees are more spread out. 

There's a beautiful 1.5 mile trail through the hilltop grove of trees which was named in the First Lady's honor after she presided at the dedication of Redwoods National Park in 1968.  

This is the only tree we saw which had ladders of spider webs going up the side between the ribs in the bark. 

Another one-of-a-kind tree. This is a tall stump, 15 or 20 feet high, with a nest of ferns growing in the top. It looked like a decoration done by a florist.

One of the burned-out trees on the trail. Redwoods aren't fire-proof but they can withstand a lot. As long as their bark isn't destroyed all the way around they can stay alive. This one has lost its entire heartwood section and almost half the exterior but it's still going.

Another big tree still living with a fire-damaged trunk.

Along with big trees there are also really big ferns. We passed a grove of 6-footers which I unfortunately didn't photograph. So we're settling for 5-foot ferns instead. Ferns are a very important part of the forest ecosystem and there are masses of them. 

Tomorrow we're going to do the final section of the park so most likely all tomorrow's pictures will be tree-related.  Unless I get interesting pictures of the laundromat where we'll also be spending some time with fingers crossed that it's better than the last one.