Vacation Day 5: Hidden Beach & Tide Pools

Not only is this beach hidden from sight until you are standing on it, but the trail to get to it is also very obscure. We were extremely lucky to find it.

After hiking to the end of the trail we found that we had Hidden Beach all to ourselves. What a gem! This was one of our favorite excursions of the trip.

My seaweed photo collection

Next we drove through Jedidiah Smith State Park on a one lane road so narrow that it sometimes felt like the side mirrors of the car were going to scrape the bark off the trees. In places the road had a dark, mysterious feel to it which added to the ambiance.

My sweet husband with a beautiful quote by Shakespeare.

While at J.S. Park we hiked a little trail down to the Smith River where we got a great view of the Redwood trees.

Later that same day we hiked a charming trail in Redwood National Park called the Brown Creek Trail.

Clover-like sorrel and mosses carpet the forest floor...

Along with ferns and skunk cabbages

Our last stop of the day was to visit some tide pools at low tide.

Vacation Day 4: The Tall Trees Trail

Only 50 permits are issued each day to limit the number of visitors who are allowed to hike the Tall Trees Trail in Redwood National Park. The area that this trail encompasses is home to several of the world's top ten tallest trees.

Being around these giants, which are over 2,000 years old, was a humbling and uplifting experience.

The tallest tree is about 367' high. To give you an idea of how high that is look for me, circled in red, in the below photo for comparison.

I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to see some of the few remaining magnificent Redwoods and I fervently hope that the greed that drives people to cut these beauties down will be replaced with the peace that these trees freely share with us. Currently, less than 4% of the original Redwoods remain.

I've never seen a bee like this. Does anyone know what it's called?

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