Does Red Make You Mad?

Well, if it does, you wouldn’t do well in the redwood forests in northern California.   Yes, Virginia, the amazing redwoods are not only in the Sequoia National Forest, but they are also in abundance up north!  There are four park sections starting north and moving south:  Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, and finally Redwood National Park.  We only visited Jedediah and Del Norte.  The biggest trees are located in Redwood National Park, so nothing we saw can compare to the GINORMOUS redwoods in Sequoia! 

The forest carpet is proliferated with many varieties of large, lush, beautiful ferns.  The groves are so thick with redwoods that very little sun reaches the forest floor.  The redwoods in this area thrive on the more than 100” of rain a year and the coastal fog.  The photo below is Walker Road which is one of the many roads you can drive on in Jedediah Smith Park. 

Here’s another towering redwood reaching up to the heavens to touch the azure blue sky in Jedidiah.

We actually had a surprise at the end of Walker Road.  Suddenly, we were confronted by the Smith River … through the Redwoods to rivers edge (below)!  We were not expecting that and weren’t really prepared to hang around too long because it was rather warm, there was very little shade at river’s edge, and we had no swimsuits or shorts with us.  It was a beautiful sight to behold though, and the dogs enjoyed splashing around on the shoreline.  More to come on the Smith River, but that’s for another blog!

Finally, here I am in Jedidiah with the dogs in tow.  In this photo you can see all that lush fern growth covering the forest floor behind me.  Oh yeah, and it’s a great pic of the dogs’ butts, too, don’t you think?

The next day we cruised up the coast on the Redwood Highway to explore part of Del Norte Coast Redwoods Park.  Jedidiah is about 10 miles inland and thus not foggy when we visited.  However, heading towards the coast we started to chill off and feel the cooling effects of the fog.   I really wanted to catch the fog in the trees and below is one of my attempts to capture the beauty of the fog weaving its way through the redwoods.

We took a detour and drove partway on a “coastal trail” (off the 101/Redwood Highway).  We were able to stop and walk a short distance to the beach.  Here’s Gary on the trail with the two dogs … oh dear, another butt picture of them!

A lot of this land is Indian Reservation, and the trail took us past one of their “sacred sites” that included a number of wood structures (see one below).

Here’s a photo of the beach after our very short walk.  I really love all the different natural elements in this photo—the multi-colored wildflowers, stark looking pine tree, moss-covered rock, bleached driftwood scattered across the sandy beach, and the lush grassy area bordering the lagoon.

Finally, just to show you that the dogs have a good side to them, here are pictures of them exploring this new territory.  Sherwood is first then Sadie second.  Personally, I think the one of Sadie is exquisite with her sitting in the grass surrounded by purple, pink, yellow and orange wildflowers.

 Next adventure … Smith River National Recreation Area/Six Rivers National Forest!