June Travels: CA Coastal Redwoods

One night in 2014, two years ago, my husband brought me home a newspaper article about hiking in the OR and CA redwoods.  The newspaper article contained a photo that spanned nearly the entire folded-half of the cover of the Outdoors section, and it contained a picture of a tree that would have almost appeared normal if there wasn’t a tiny human standing next to the tree’s trunk for perspective. The girth and surmised personality of the tree, in my mind, rivaled Don Quixote’s windmills in the areas of adventure, imagination, and probably physique; I knew I had to go see these giant coastal redwoods for myself.

The article remained in my possession as a reminder of my dream.  I put it on the refrigerator door where I would see it daily, and it slowly yellowed and darkened in the places where it wasn’t covered by souvenir magnets holding it in place. It waited patiently for opportunity, swinging perpetually back and forth each day when the refrigerator door opened and closed, lit up and darkened.  Its paper edges twittered and rustled themselves with each sway of the door, whispering “Go to the Redwoods. Go to the redwoods.”

And then, somehow, it finally happened.  My sister and I planned a trip for a week in June, and off we went driving down the Oregon coast. What can I say, except it is so fulfilling when a dream gets to come true.

Reminiscing over the article that started it all before my sister Sarah and I depart Crescent City, CA,
where we stayed overnight before a long day of hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods Park.

We got to hike to the double “Boyscout” redwood tree in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park, and we also did an 11-plus mile hike out into the Prairie Creek Redwoods Park.  We saw elk stand regal and proud in the mist of the 7-am prairie one day, and we saw a salamander ducking under a dewy fern another day.  There were majestic rhododendrons in various colors blooming along the trails we followed, and hundreds of Coastal Redwood trees taller than most buildings and older than God.

It’s something that sticks with you, and it was worth the wait.

On the drive down to the Redwoods, Sarah and I took a break at Meyers Beach on the Oregon Coast.

Sarah and I at Meyers Beach.

Before the California border, we stopped at Prehistoric Gardens.

"I am a big believer in taking unscheduled stops even when on the way to a specific destination.  The unexpected things in life can be intriguing, can give joy, and sometimes can awaken things inside that may have previously been extinct.  You'll get to your destination when you get there; it's your choice whether or not you want to stop and make fun of T-Rex's small arms and hope he doesn't eat you for it...or something like that."

Sarah on our first hike, right after we crossed over into the California border.  This was on the road before we got to the trailhead for the Boyscout Tree.

"There be giants."

At the Boyscout tree at Jedidiah Smith Redwoods Park.
You could look up until your neck broke off and still never really see the top.

Sarah in front of the Boyscout Tree - two massive trees that have grown together.  

Misty morning before we started our longer hike, and we got to meet the locals.

Lots of trails!  On this particular day we hiked the James Irvine Trail to
Fern Canyon, and then back to where we began taking the Miner's Ridge Trail.

Finishing up the hike.  Happy sweaty girls.

Several weeks after our trip, I was looking back over my pictures and this tree in particular, from our hike on Miner's Ridge Trail in the Prairie Creek Redwoods Park, just struck me.

"I want to be back here, in this old shell of a burnt coastal redwood, looking up again into the treetops above as if through a chimney.  What a thing it is, to sit in the heart-space of a tree skeleton and feel comforted in the shadow of that resting spot.  We all need a little extra shelter somethings and a framed perspective of the heavens and time and life and death all rolled up in one.