Redwoods!
July 12, 2005
Today started with a trip to the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. This beach used to be a place where people dumped garbage, including glass bottles, etc. Over the years, the water broke up the glass and rounded it into pebble-like shapes. We saw a number of people picking up the glass in buckets, so who knows how much longer the glass beach will exist. There were also some nice views from the beach, which you can see in Flickr.
We then continued up the Mendocino Coast for about an hour until Highway 1 turned inland to the mountains and some beautiful mountain scenery. Eventually Highway 1 connects with Highway 101. Highway 101 is a 4-lane highway in many places, making travel a little quicker. In this portion of the state Highway 101 is known as the Redwood Highway.
Much of the rest of our day was spent traveling through the Coast Redwoods, stopping to marvel at these trees and the old growth forests of which they are part. It is hard to capture their magnificence in a photo or to express it in words. The picture above is of Patty, Betsy, Katie, and Michael stretching out around Big Tree (that's its name). It gives you some idea of the circumference. Here are some facts about the Coast Redwoods:
• Height: To nearly 370 ft.
• Age: To 2000 years
• Bark: To 12 inches thick
• Base: To 22 ft. diameter
• Have no known killing diseases and suffer no significant insect damage. Survive forest fires due to their thick bark and lack of resin.
Those details, however, cannot communicate what it is like to stand in a grove of the redwoods. It is something that truly has to be experienced. The giant sequoia, their cousins, grow larger in diameter and bulk but not in height. The sequoias are found only on the Sierra Nevadas western slope. Perhaps we'll see some of them later in our trip when we are in Yosemite.
We stopped and went on short hikes at both Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwood National and State Parks At Redwood National and State Parks we also saw some Roosevelt Elk , the northern redwood region's most often seen land mammal.
Tonight we are staying in Crescent City, CA Crescent City does have a few more amenities than did Fort Bragg; we found a Pizza Hut for dinner!
****************************************
July 13, 2005
This is a combined post because (a) we did not have Internet access to post pictures and the blog last night in Crescent City and (b) there is not a lot to report today. We left Crescent City about 9 AM, setting out through the mountains on Highway 199. Highway 199 is another twisty road, with lots of great scenery. About an hour and 45 minutes and 78 miles later we connected with Interstate 5 which runs from the Canadian border down through California. We will be spending a great deal of time on this road in the next week or so.
We traveled north on I-5, stopping in Eugene, OR for lunch. We also traveled through Salem - Salem is located at the 45th Parallel, which means the distance is equal at that point between the equator and the North Pole. Tonight we are in Clackamas, OR, a suburb of Portland. On tomorrow's agenda is Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, then on to Seattle.
---
A selection of photos from our trip can be viewed at Flickr. You might like to watch them as a slideshow. Send us an email by clicking HERE.
Today started with a trip to the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. This beach used to be a place where people dumped garbage, including glass bottles, etc. Over the years, the water broke up the glass and rounded it into pebble-like shapes. We saw a number of people picking up the glass in buckets, so who knows how much longer the glass beach will exist. There were also some nice views from the beach, which you can see in Flickr.
We then continued up the Mendocino Coast for about an hour until Highway 1 turned inland to the mountains and some beautiful mountain scenery. Eventually Highway 1 connects with Highway 101. Highway 101 is a 4-lane highway in many places, making travel a little quicker. In this portion of the state Highway 101 is known as the Redwood Highway.
Much of the rest of our day was spent traveling through the Coast Redwoods, stopping to marvel at these trees and the old growth forests of which they are part. It is hard to capture their magnificence in a photo or to express it in words. The picture above is of Patty, Betsy, Katie, and Michael stretching out around Big Tree (that's its name). It gives you some idea of the circumference. Here are some facts about the Coast Redwoods:
• Height: To nearly 370 ft.
• Age: To 2000 years
• Bark: To 12 inches thick
• Base: To 22 ft. diameter
• Have no known killing diseases and suffer no significant insect damage. Survive forest fires due to their thick bark and lack of resin.
Those details, however, cannot communicate what it is like to stand in a grove of the redwoods. It is something that truly has to be experienced. The giant sequoia, their cousins, grow larger in diameter and bulk but not in height. The sequoias are found only on the Sierra Nevadas western slope. Perhaps we'll see some of them later in our trip when we are in Yosemite.
We stopped and went on short hikes at both Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwood National and State Parks At Redwood National and State Parks we also saw some Roosevelt Elk , the northern redwood region's most often seen land mammal.
Tonight we are staying in Crescent City, CA Crescent City does have a few more amenities than did Fort Bragg; we found a Pizza Hut for dinner!
****************************************
July 13, 2005
This is a combined post because (a) we did not have Internet access to post pictures and the blog last night in Crescent City and (b) there is not a lot to report today. We left Crescent City about 9 AM, setting out through the mountains on Highway 199. Highway 199 is another twisty road, with lots of great scenery. About an hour and 45 minutes and 78 miles later we connected with Interstate 5 which runs from the Canadian border down through California. We will be spending a great deal of time on this road in the next week or so.
We traveled north on I-5, stopping in Eugene, OR for lunch. We also traveled through Salem - Salem is located at the 45th Parallel, which means the distance is equal at that point between the equator and the North Pole. Tonight we are in Clackamas, OR, a suburb of Portland. On tomorrow's agenda is Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, then on to Seattle.
---
A selection of photos from our trip can be viewed at Flickr. You might like to watch them as a slideshow. Send us an email by clicking HERE.
posted by Bill Bauer at 8:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home