giant

when we left our motel this morning, the excellent curly redwood lodge, our first stop, at what was supposed to be a fantastic lookout, we took the above picture. not very promising, but not to be thwarted by any creepy northern california fog, we pressed on. for our determination we were treated to our first wild hollyhock flowers of the day--we would see a bunch later on, and in quite a few different colors, but these were our first, and even i thought that it was cool to see them in the wild. anyway, we continued to head south on highway 101, which eventually led us through the national and state redwood parks. while we had done this yesterday, i never really got over the fact that we were driving through a redwood forest, giant trees all around--it was truly amazing.we also took a scenic byway that took us to the largest tree in the park--at least diameter wise. it is 64.8 feet around, and so tall it has another tree growing on top of it. no joke. they also estimate that it is 1500-1600 years old. i'm not showing you a picture because you would have no idea that it was any bigger than any of the other redwoods.while we were in a trail network we headed town the cathedral trail, which i thought sounded promising. and what a cathedral--a lot of our pictures came from this area. i chose to include pictures with people in them to give you some scope. when you just see these trees from a distance, it looks much like any other forest. but walk among them and it feels like you are walking through the set of jurassic park. for not only are the trees giant, as you can see, but so is everything else. this picture of me with some ferns is me standing in the ferns, not sitting. they were as tall as me. we also saw rhododendron plants that were easily 10 feet tall, for those of you who know anything about plants.

of course, the trees dwarf everything else. these trees only grow out of each other, so they are called mother/daughter trees--they don't propagate by seed like other trees. their bark is naturally flame-retardant, so they can't burn down. and their bark is silvery with vertical stripes--it is the wood inside that gave the tree its name. and just when you think you've seen it all on one of these trails, you see something like this: a giant uprooted tree. and then you realize that it is a root system this small that supports a 200+ foot tree. crazy.





after a short walk, we headed further south, and walked the lady bird grove loop hike, where we also ate lunch. interestingly, this national park was not designated as such until the 1960s, and it was in this grove in the heart of the park that it was dedicated. after lunch it was several hours of twisty roads leading south to the coast road, highway 1, long considered one of the great american drives. i'm talking harrowing, 15 mph turns, through speckled lighting. but it was still beautiful driving, with more than the occasional redwood. and i think it was all worth it for those 40 or so miles that we spent driving along the coast. the fog had gone away several hours before, and it was nothing but sun and wind on the mostly rocky northern california coast. we stopped in fort bragg (no relation) for a great authentic italian dinner, thanks to the yelp application for iphone. and then it was more driving--we made it all the way to dublin, which is a little east of oakland in the bay area. thankfully this means that we have only a few more hours to yosemite tomorrow. yay!