Trailer Trip 2014: Trees and more trees

Today, Sunday, we went to the part of the Redwood National and State Park that is south of Crescent City. That is a larger parcel of real estate and includes several drives and walking trails in the old growth Redwood Forest. For the most part we still were just looking at trees but every turn in a trail seems to show something a little different. Maybe a grove of larger ones together or some fallen timber. As in all forests, there is downed timber, logs, uprooted trees and it’s the same here except for the size of them.

There were quite a few people driving and walking through the park like we were but not large numbers. There is one area of the park, the Tall Tree Loop off Bald Hills Road that you have to get a free permit to go in. They only allow 50 vehicles in per day. So we got one at the visitor center early and drove to it. It was 10 miles off U.S. 101, then we had to open a locked gate with the combination they gave us with the permit, then drive another 6 miles along a gravel road to the trail head. The walking trail was 1-1/2 miles downhill with switchbacks, then 1 mile loop through the Redwood grove, then 1-1/2 miles back uphill. We never saw another person after we went through the gate. There were 2 cars there but they must have been somewhere else because we didn’t see them. It was like a jungle with ferns growing everywhere but on the trail and many very large Redwoods including the one they call “Tall Tree”. It, supposedly, is over 320 feet tall.

Then, coming out of the loop, we stopped at the Redwood Creek Overlook and I’m glad we did. It looks west over the 9000 acre ancient Redwood Forest and restored logged forest out onto the Pacific Ocean. Placard signs there tell the story of the restoration of the damaged logged areas. It shows a picture of the logging roads and bare areas and says that the area was badly eroded. That was repaired by the Park Service and now second growth forest covers it all. I don’t know what kinds of trees make up the second growth, whether it’s Redwoods or not.

Another sign explains how the Redwoods depend on the moisture brought in on the fog from the ocean. It keeps the forest constantly damp all the time which is necessary for the trees. It’s their climate. It’s perfect for Redwood trees and no place else on earth will do. Another way of saying it is this: If you happen to be standing next to a Coast Redwood then you must be in northern California near the ocean. You can’t be any other place.

The drive-through tree is on private property, not park lands.