Land of the Giants!

Land of the Giants

 

Sept. 1 – 5, 2021

 

Our campsite at Redwood Meadows RV Resort was just a mile down “the 199” from the entrance to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park!  We opted to stay there rather than the state park due to length restrictions.  25’ is the longest camper that fits into the state park and our 5th wheel is 31’.  In addition, there are no services (electric, water…) and I’ve gown very accustomed to my morning cup of coffee!  Being a mile away is close enough for me, especially if it means I can use my own shower and make a pot of java!  Bill and Judy (our neighbors) were a bonus for staying there.  Bill is a native Californian and seems to know all of the great spots to visit.  On top of his tour guide recommendations, he is very creative and artistic.  He creates amazing redwood sculptures using a small chainsaw!  Bill’s soft spoken, gentle voice created such a relaxing environment as we sat around the campsite visiting sans campfire.  With California in such a severe drought, there is a ban on campfires.  Interesting though, is that often campers bring a propane fueled fire pit with them.  I guess these westerners are accustomed to campfire bans and have found a way to still enjoy the evening, sitting around a fire!



We spent part of one day exploring Jedediah Smith State Park (located at the north end of the park system), which was not near enough time!  We had a bit of confusion at the park entrance which states “Redwood National and State Parks”.  Which is it?  State or National??  Turns out, it’s both!  In 1994, the National Park Service and California State Parks agreed to cooperatively manage their contiguous redwood parklands.  It’s refreshing to see someone working together!   

 

Once inside the park, the very narrow, windy roads made it clear why you don’t want to come in here with a big camper!  The path the roads follow was designed to avoid the giants and take up minimum land.  We wound our way to the day use area, where we walked down to the edge of the Smith River.  This rock bottom river is about the clearest river you are ever going to find and is absolutely stunning!

 



Once parked, we followed the River Beach Trail to a footbridge that led us to Stout Grove.  This grove of redwoods was spectacular!  Word is, “Return of the Jedi” was filmed here!  What fun to imagine ourselves on a trip to Endor, watching the storm troopers marching down the trail!   Apparently, the redwoods are a popular location for filming movies.  Over twenty different movies have scenes from Redwood National Park in them.  While walking back to our truck, we came across a young mother in search of her 7-year-old son, Solomon.  The park rangers and campground hosts quickly went into action and hopefully found him shortly thereafter.  I was amazed at how calm his mother was!  We stuck around and helped in the search for a bit but the hosts reassured us this happens weekly and they did not need our assistance. We sent up prayers as we continued, not knowing how else we could help.

 




Other equally spectacular trails we hiked were the Simpson-Reed and Peterson trails. Here we learned about the incredibly shallow roots these trees have!  The root system opts to branch out over 50 feet in every direction rather than grow deep, entwining itself with other redwoods nearby.  It’s hard to believe these 360 feet tall giants have roots only  six to twelve feet deep.   I wish we had time to hike the Boy Scout Tree Trail as it sounds like another real gem.  I guess it’s best to leave myself a reason to come back! 

 

Can you find Waldo, oops, I mean Dick?




We thought we would explore a bit more of Redwood National Park, as it covers quite a large area, so we spent a day traveling south along Hwy. 101 to approximately the midsection of the park.  We had heard there had been a massive landslide south of Crescent City in February and wondered if the road was opened yet or not.  The answer –    kind of!  Construction crews have one lane open with a signal allowing northbound and southbound traffic to alternate turns.  It was a bit of a slowdown, but not nearly what we had anticipated.  For part of this drive, we deviated from 101 and took the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway.  Along the parkway, we stopped to hike the Ah-Pah Trail.  This trail was developed from a former logging road.  It was quite the restoration project to put it back to how it was pre-logging road!  It now serves as the model for restoration projects around the country!  

 


As we traveled south, we went through Elk Prairie, which I thought would be a small town. Nope, it’s a prairie with elk!  In the mid 1800’s, the Roosevelt elk were hunted to near-extinction.  By 1925, the number of these elk in California had dropped to as few as 15.  Through laws that protect endangered species, these elk have rebounded and now number more than 1,000!   We saw them at several locations during our drive!




Our southernmost hike was the Lady Bird Johnson Trail, named in her honor August 27, 1969.  This was an interpretive trail that was really educational!  One interesting thing we learned was about the fire damage we have been seeing in all of the groves we have hiked in. These redwoods, that grow to heights more that 360 feet and live to be more than 2000 years old, have very thick bark.  In fact, the bark in the older trees can be over one foot thick!  This thick bark is free from resin and acts as a natural fire blanket for the trees!  With repeated exposure to fires, a fire can eventually work through the bark; but even then, the tree survives!  We saw so many examples of giant redwoods hollowed out from fire, yet still alive and well!  On a random note, the location of the oldest and largest redwood trees is not disclosed to the public.  These trees’ locations are not revealed in order to protect them from any possible harm.  Kind of a sad commentary on parts of society today.

 

A fallen redwood tree made for a nice picnic lunch bench!


A forest fire survivor!

Our final stop on our trip south was at Fern Canyon.  This was another “must do” stop the gal at the visitor center recommended to us.  It was here that Jurassic Park 2 was filmed.  This time it was not as fun imagining all of the carnage!  I’m not much of a “scary movie” gal!  I, instead, kept my mind focused on the 30’ canyon walls, covered with various species of ferns and the winding creek as we used the many footbridges to crisscross back and forth along the stream.  The drive itself to the canyon was enough to have my heart racing!  To get there, you take a steep, very narrow, windy, hard packed, gravel road for seven miles.  When you meet a car, you have to pull over as far as possible and stop while the other car creeps past. Needless to say, I asked Dick to drive us out of there (which he happily agreed to – my hero!).

  



Seeing how we will be in California for the next 5 months, we decided with our final day in the area to make the 20-mile drive north to Oregon.  Brookings, Oregon is located right on the coastline and we yearned for another day of enjoying the rocky shore.  Scenic stops we made along 101 were Arch Rock and Natural Bridge.  Both offered hikes; however, we ran a bit short of time and had to be content enjoying the view.  Who knew there are ancient redwood trees in Oregon?  Redwood Nature Trail Loop was about 10 miles east of Brookings and we couldn’t resist hiking that trail.  This trail is also an interpretive trail and again, we learned a lot!  We saw one ancient redwood tree that contains enough wood to build eight, two-bedroom homes!  It’s impossible to capture the massiveness of these trees on camera!  

 




To end our trip to Brookings, we attended mass at Star of the Sea Catholic Church.  It is a lovely little parish!

 

One final note about this day is a thought about depression and suicide.  Due to distance, we attended the funeral of Hannah, daughter of good friends, Brad and Kathy, virtually.  This was a tearful part of our day, but we were so very glad we were able to partake in the service from afar.  Hannah was an extremely talented woman, who spent a large part of her life being a voice for the oppressed and underprivileged.   Hannah worked tirelessly advocating for a more just society.  Hannah was truly the Good Samaritan, helping those whom others ignored.  Sadly, Hannah lost her battle with depression on November 10, 2020.  Being a small part in honoring Hannah’s well-lived life was a privilege.  Please, if you or anyone you love is having a difficult time with depression, check out these resources.  

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