Vacation Day 3: Birds, Beasts, Beaches & Big Trees

Our first stop in Redwood National Park was the visitors' center.


Right behind the visitors' center was a big flock of birds that put on quite a good show. We also saw a seal fishing in the water, but we weren't fast enough to catch the slippery guy on film.






Gary got some wonderful footage of hundreds of seabirds flying above the beach and ocean.

View from the Redwood Creek overlook


Big Ferns along the Big Tree Trail


It's not "The" Big Tree, but is a quite big one nonetheless


At one point on the Cathedral Trail we laid down on the ground and spent about twenty minutes looking up into the tree tops. It was easy to feel a connection with all living things in this exquisite place.




Here is a glimpse of some of the many beaches in the park.










I thought the below buildings built to disguise radar equipment during WWII were fascinating. I took pictures of the newspaper article along with a close up picture of a dormer that you can see is obviously fake. I wasn't previously aware of the threat to the West Coast during WWII.

From the information sign: "After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, the possibility of enemy attack on the U.S. mainland became very real. At one point, Japanese submarines operated in offshore waters and actually shelled some shipping operations and oil installations off the coast of California and Oregon. To guard against potential invasion, the U.S. Army built the "farm" buildings you see below. The cinderblock structures, complete with shingled roofs, and fake windows and dormers, housed an early warning radar station. From the air, the sea, and even the road, these buildings appeared to be part of a working farm. In fact, they housed a diesel generator, electronic equipment, and two 50-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns. As part of a network of observation stations, the soliders and civilians stationed here reported any suspicious boats and planes to a communications center in San Francisco, ready to dispatch fighter planes if the crafts were identified as hostile."






On the way out of the park we got to witness the interactions of a group of elk. Their relationships were complex and reminded me of a tv drama.

This poor yearling is gradually being driven out of the herd by the leader of the pack.

A little film of clips from our day in Redwood National Park