We left our campground at Crater Lakes, elevation around 7,000 feet, and drove 160 miles to California. The first town we got to there said the elevation was 320 feet. No wonder my ears were screaming from the pressure change!
Just about as soon as we got into California, we were in a Redwood Forest. These massive trees are found in a band about 20 miles wide just a little inland from the Northern California coast, from about the Oregon border south to San Francisco. The area where we were is part State Park and part National Park. The trees need to be inland as salt water is not good for them, but they need the moisture provided by the coast. A single redwood may consume up to 500 gallons of water in a day. This area of California receives 60-80 inches of rain a year. There is also a lot of fog in the area that provides moisture for the trees.
As we hiked in several of these forests of massive trees, some as old as 2000 years old, standing 370 feet or more in the air, I was reminded of my father's favorite song, “How Great Thou Art.” One verse, which always reminds me of him because of his love for the woods, starts out, “ When through the woods and forest glades I wander...“. I don't think my father ever got to the Redwoods, even though our family lived in the LA area for several years when my older brother and I were infants. I felt his presence in the woods with me. Jodi, who was also traveling, had a similar experience. She and Andy were in Indianapolis with Rob and Katie at a Lillith Fair Concert which features several woman singers. Sarah McLaughlin, whose song “Angels” Jodi had sung with the voice of an angel at my mother's funeral, came on to sing, and the first song Sarah sang was “Angels.” Jodi said she sobbed through the entire song as she felt her grandmother's presence with her there at the concert.
When we were hiking, I felt as though I had been dropped on the movie set of “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” because I felt like an ant compared to the trees. One of the hikes was through an area called The Cathedral which seemed aptly named to me because the tall trees stood like pillars in the quiet peacefulness of the forest. One tree we saw, called Big Tree, was 1500 years old, and 287 feet high with a circumference of 68 feet, and a diameter of 23.7 feet. There were many other trees as old or older, higher, and wider, but they were deeper in the woods, so weren't “featured” trees. We'd be hiking along with our heads bent back looking up at the top of the trees to see how high they were, or if they were still alive, thinking we'd have sore necks from all of the looking. Sometimes we'd look at the base of a tree and have to look several times to determine if it was indeed as wide as it seemed, or if it was two or three trees that had grown together, a common occurence.
It's hard to believe that these majestic trees have been around much longer than the United States has been a country. Even trees that have been dead for 500 years are still standing because it takes so long for the wood to rot. They are not hurt too often by forest fires because their bark is so thick, and their wood doesn't burn well. Many of the trees that have been burned a little are still standing, some almost completely hollow trees that make neat little “houses.” I think perhaps natives used them for shelter sometimes when they were in the woods for long periods of time.
We saw how the trees helped each other, too. Despite their size, their roots are very shallow, and the trees, roots attached, often fall over with the wind. They must make one heck of a noise when they fall because they are so big! Anyway, after they fall, other species of trees and plants grow right on top of the downed tree. We saw lots of fallen redwoods with the roots of other trees wrapped around them, hanging on for dear life, growing tall in the forest because of their “helper” tree. We learned that redwoods will grow from the seeds in the very tiny pine cones they produce, but will more likely sprout from a downed tree.
Several years ago we visited the Giant Sequoia forests here in California, and the redwoods are related to them. The redwoods are taller than the sequoias, but the sequoias are wider and heavier. They have both been around for about the same period of time.
In addition to hiking through groves of Redwoods, we took a few driving tours through some of them. One of the drives was on a narrow, dusty, zigzag lane through several hundred huge redwoods on a road that had once been a stagecoach trail.
We saw a lot of Roosevelt elk here in the park. They almost became extinct years ago, but are now protected in the park, and have come back in huge numbers. There are signs all over saying to stay away from the wild elk, but the elk wander right down to the road, often in big herds.
This morning we took a jet boat ride on the Klamath River to see wildlife. It was a great trip, and we did see lots of animals. We saw many birds like ospreys, mergansers, herons – both blue and green, bald eagles, and a golden eagle, the first I've ever seen. We also saw a seal, a baby bear, a deer climbing straight up the side of a cliff, and several wild cattle that were stranded on the river during a flood about 20 years ago. The captain was very knowledgeable and fun-loving. We had two family reunion groups on the boat with us, with a lot of kids, so he wanted to make the ride fun for them. We did several 360s in the river as well as sudden stops which would make the back row of pre-teen boys get wet. They loved it and so did the rest of us. It was sort of like being on a Disney ride, but the wild animals and scenery were real!
The first night we camped in one of the state parks where the redwood grow. Tonight we moved about 80 miles down the highway, still in redwood territory, but are camped along the sandy beach. Tomorrow we will head to San Francisco.