Redwoods

I didn’t sleep that great despite the ideal location, the ocean is noisy I guess.  The drive to Redwood National Park was a very twisty, hilly 30 miles that probably only moved us three to five miles inland before returning us to the coast.  We rolled into the park boundary and came upon a nice deserted stretch of beach.  We had a perfect WLAN signal too. 

Updated yesterday’s blog and uploaded it with a handful of pictures, added a picture to our Death Valley day also.

I am taking stills with Cheryl and my GOPRO digital camera as all our other devices now have dead batteries; Ty’s camera, my camera and even our led lantern.  Errands for later in the day I suppose.   

Capturing stills from the video is also working out well, although time consuming.

Speaking of time, I feel we are running out.  We had a nice meandering drive to get here, but I fear the drive home will feature long days behind the wheel.  At any rate I want to get to Washington State, see the badlands, see Yellowstone and whatever else is not presently coming to mind. 

The Redwoods National Park Junior Ranger badge was a breeze for Tyler, I thought it was easy too.  The tasks and assignment were pretty straight forward and Ty was done within an hour. Good, since there weren’t any trees at the Visitor Center.  We headed in to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove and took a short hike.  It is truly like jungle rainforest here, warnings about panthers and bears, undergrowth so thick you’d be lost in minutes, if you could make your way through it at all.  The morning fog hangs in the trees causing tree showers as the water condenses and drips from the canopy.  50% of the trees water comes from this source alone.

 The redwoods are unique with respect to the environment they dwell in.  The sequoias are devoid of much undergrowth and stand alone.  The redwoods rise out of the crowded woods and tower above, some 300’ for a mature tree.  That trumps Lady Liberty at 152’.

Our hike through the grove was not uneventful as we came upon a quarrel over a cell phone use in the park.  The aggressor somehow felt his experience was being ruined by cellphone chatter.  It nearly came to fisticuffs, but I announced I was videotaping the whole thing and Tyler was yelling that he was a Junior Ranger.  They stopped and went separate ways.  The older gentleman apologized to Tyler and I while the younger jerk just scowled.  I am not sure if I got any video, as I may have had the camera in still photo mode.

At any rate while we were leaving we saw no less than four Banana Slugs.

Darrel

Larry(1)

I named them Darrel, Larry, his brother Larry and his other brother Larry.  Tyler didn’t get it, but liked the names nonetheless.

Crossing the Klamath River,(41.517752,-124.030872), in you guessed it, Klamath, CA we noticed a commotion on the bridge.  A lot of people were peering over the side.  I saw some movement beneath the water, like something had breached.  I told Tyler to keep a sharp look out and he excitedly reported to me it was a whale in the river.  Brian and Andrew would have enjoyed that.

We were on Rt101 and the river is only three miles from the ocean at this point.  Tyler’s first whale sighting.

We took Rt199 West and crossed into the Smith River National Recreation Area and camped at Grassy Flat.  With our Annual Pass it came to $5.  Yeah!

Looks like we have an obnoxious noisy neighbor in a VW Euro-bus.  I’ll give him the benefit of doubt as he was friendly when he pulled in.  Lots of mosquitoes here, yuck.
Now a carload of five teenagers....wait they're polite came and introduced themselves.  They said if they got too loud just holler.