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Published: September 21st 2006
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Avenue of the Giants
in Humboldt State Park. After a glorious couple of days at Crater Lake, we set off driving South and finally crossed into California. It was quite a momentous occasion to reach the West Coast at last. We joined winding Highway 101, the Coast Road, and looked forward to seeing some sun, sand and the Pacific…good old sunny California right?!
No no, that’s Southern California. We quickly learned that Northern California is much different, at least near the coast that is. The entire area was shrouded in fog…Not just a light fog that you might see in the morning that quickly dissipates by noon; no this was a thick, dense fog that rolls in off the ocean and looms over all day and night like a giant grey blanket, sometimes dropping down some mist on you just for good measure.
So this is how it was for three whole days, and no doubt the days before and the days after... nothing but fog - damp, grey and depressing. But hey, we didn’t really come to the little town of Eureka for sun and fun… it would have been nice, but it’s not really why we came. Nope our sole purpose for this stop was
to see trees…not just any trees but the tallest and probably most impressive trees in the world, the Sequoia Sempervirens or as they are more commonly known, the Coast Redwoods. These giants of the forest only grow in Northern California and that’s because of the fog. They need the fog to survive so I guess that makes it a bit less depressing.
We started our tour of Redwood country with the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California’s largest redwood park. We drove the 33 mile serpentine Avenue of the Giants and stopped off for some glorious walks along the way. It is only when you step out of the car and stand amongst the towering redwoods that you truly appreciate their size; many grow to over 350 feet tall and over 25 feet in diameter. Walking through the redwood groves felt like stepping back into prehistoric times...these gigantic trees seem like they would fit right in with the dinosaurs. The specimens we saw weren’t quite that old, but many have been around for over two thousand years. This is largely due to the fact that they are nearly indestructible. Their thick bark is fire resistant; their inner heartwood is full
of tannins that resist insects and disease. About the only way that they die is from their one weakness, their shallow root system. When the ground gets saturated by floods this can often lead to them toppling over, sometimes taking out some neighboring trees on the way down. You can see that we read all the leaflets and trail signs right?
The next day we headed North to the Redwood National Park and Prairie Creek State Park… where we found more fog...and you guessed it, more trees! No matter how many of these enormous trees that you see, they still don’t cease to take your breath away, truly a sight to behold. You really have to see them in person to understan;, a photo simply cannot capture the glory... although that did not stop us from trying! The real highlight of our second day, other than the trees, was our journey down to Fern Canyon. After an eight mile drive down a narrow, bumpy dirt road, we took the short hike to the canyon. Here a small creek has over the years carved a fairly large canyon out of the mountainside… ok you may have heard that story before…
Full Height
One of the few opportunities to get a photo of the trees' full height. Jen is but a tiny speck at the bottom. but what makes this place impressive is that the walls of this canyon are entirely lined with lush, green ferns, hence the name Fern Canyon. The whole place was a bit of a tropical oasis, and like the redwoods, a bit prehistoric…fortunately no dinosaurs to be seen!
As with all such things, the sheer size of the Redwoods nearly proved to be their undoing. The commercial value of such a large hunk of lumber proved all too enticing for the early settlers. It is estimated that 95% of these giant coast redwoods have been felled for such things as railway sleepers and firewood... a terribly sad end for some of the oldest living organisms on the planet. However, some of the more enterprising and nature loving early Californians saw a different value in the Redwoods…tourism. So now we have such novelties as the Drive Thru Tree and the World Famous Tree House both constructed from living redwoods… not to mention the One Log House and the One Log Truck both carved from a single felled redwood…genius!
So after a couple days of tree hugging… we felt truly at one with nature. Now it’s back to civilisation… and hopefully
a bit of sunshine too.
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