Benbow Valley to lassen Volcanic National Park, California

---

This morning we traveled the Avenue of the Giants, an area with a state park and acres and acres of old growth redwood groves, right off of Highway 101. The road wasn’t narrow, but it did wind around big trees that were close to the highway. We stopped at several places to walk through the groves. The woods were dark and quiet except for chirping birds, very peaceful. The forest floor was carpeted with a dense layer of redwood needles, ferns and rotting trees. The redwoods are overpowering and give you a sense of insignificance. Redwoods are taller than Sequoias, but don’t have the girth. They are still very impressive trees.
After lunch we turned eastward and started the trip home. CT rolled up misty fir covered mountains and down the Trinity River Canyon (very pretty). Of course, we made a number of rock collection stops. Northern CA is remote and sparsely populated, but with its mountains, lakes and rivers it’s a big outdoor recreation area. There are a limited number of east-west roads in this part of the state so our route was not difficult to determine. Surprisingly, the road was good.
We drove through Redding, the biggest city in northern CA, then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We reached the park about 8:30 pm, but there wasn’t a problem because the campground was almost empty. Tomorrow we’ll tour the park and head for Nevada.

---

Photos

Big Trees
It's difficult to convey the actual size of the trees.

This That a Big Nose or What?
This is actually a burl, nodules that grow on trees when stressed

Trinity River Canyon
It was a beautiful green rushing river.

Comments

[kimberly]

quiet
I have always loved the quiet when you are low in a forest and the trees buffer out non-organic noise. So lovely. Your photos seem to show numerous ferns? amongst the trees.....I love em. Shade dwellers like me :)