The Mighty Redwoods

This morning Allen was reluctant to leave the warm sheets behind, but after much persistence and the promise of tree-hugging in his immediate future, he braved the cold shower and followed Marce in her quest for breakfast. We paid a brief visit to the motel lobby and found Nick, dressed in a towel, blessing the lobby area with Champa incense. We gathered our blessing-sprinkled continental breakfast and continued our drive to the town of Legget on Pacific Coast Highway 1.

The Pacific Coast Highway, now more often called The Redwood Highway, meanders through spectacular vistas, following the turbulent Eel River and cutting through towering Redwood Forests. Our first close-up encounter with the tallest living beings on earth happened at the World Famous “Drive-thru” Redwood Tree in Legget. There we drove Aveo, our trusty steed, through the Chandelier Tree. The following poem stands next to the gift shop, to remind us of how fortunate we are to be standing here...

Here, sown by the Creator’s hand,
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand;
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands, their glory know

The greatest of earth’s living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms;
Their challenge still

A Real-Life Tree-hugger!!!
The Boy gives thanks to one of these beautiful trees.

unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.

This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here we pause, with reverent eye,
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul;
For here we sense life’s proper goal.

To be like these, straight, true and fine,
To make our world, like theirs, a shrine;
Sink down, Oh, traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.

Words cannot possibly express the beauty and dignity of these age-old witnesses to our history, So, for today, we will keep our blog short and let the pictures speak for themselves. If you’d like to learn more about the mighty Redwoods, visit: http://www.savetheredwoods.org

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