Our final destination was Humboldt Redwoods State Park - home of the Coast Redwoods. We drove up Sunday evening, hit some of the stops along the Avenue of the Giants, stayed in a cute cabin in the woods, then drove back through Monday morning on our way out. The majesty of these trees is stunning. You see pictures, and yeah, they're big trees. But until you're standing next to this beast of a living thing and can't even see the top of it, you just have no idea. No words and no photos can do them justice. The two words that kept coming to mind were majestic and stunning. I absolutely loved it.
One of the cool features of these trees is that the branches don't really start until at lesat thirty or forty (probably 100 in some cases) feet off the ground so they're just these giant trunks with impressively thick bark.
The trees we saw varied in size, obviously, but the biggest we saw I think was about seventeen feet in diameter. Crazy!
If trees could talk! These guys have been around for a looong time.
While in the park, I kept thinking of the *NSYNC music video for "This I Promise You," which was filmed there. If only Justin had accompanied me on this trip.
I'm dwarfed next to Tall Tree. Such an original name.
My favorite part of taking this picture of Jaime was watching her try to get out of the tree afterwards.
These trees are so huge and strong, that they can withstand extreme trauma. Here's an example of a tree that has been burned out in the middle but is still standing. The one on the right, not so lucky. One of the things we learned about them was that one of the reasons they grow so tall is because their bark is incredibly thick, so they're not as susceptible to fire and insects.
I told Jaime to pose with the roots and this is what she did. She didn't want to touch the roots because they were dirty.
The roots of these trees don't go very deep but they sprawl out laterally, interlocking with the roots of other trees forming a safety net for them all. While walking through the forest, we came up with all kinds of gospel applications - our faith is so much stronger when we surround ourselves with others and strengthen each other. That's one of the reasons God sent us here in families - to strengthen and support each other.
Sunday drive
The park surrounds the Eel River, which is incredibly dry. I'd heard about the drought in California, but seeing this nearly dried-up riverbed was a stark visual of just how serious it is.
These knobby things are called burls and indicate a time of stress that the tree endured (See? All kinds of gospel applications!).
This was the biggest tree we saw - The Dyerville Giant. It was the tallest tree they'd measured before it fell, then after it fell they realized it was even taller than they'd thought. I think it was somewhere around 375 feet tall and 17 feet in diameter. This picture is about 20 or 30 feet from one tip looking towards the other - the people in the distance are about 10 or 20 fee from the other end. In the brochure we read, it said that when this tree fell in the 1990s, a neighbor about a mile away thought a train had wrecked because the sound was so loud and the force of the tree falling registered on the Richter scale. I can't imagine what it would be like to watch that!
There are roadside attractions set up along the way with trees you can walk through or drive through or drive onto (all of which we did).
In the 1960s the Eel River flooded and completely washed out a town in the forest. This sign shows the high water mark - the top panel is where the water was.
The natural wonders are always my favorite part of every trip and this did not disappoint. The beauty of our world continually strengthens my testimony of the love Heavenly Father has for us. I'm so grateful to live in such a beautiful place and to have the privilege to see so much of it!
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