Oregon Trail - Day 7 (California Dreaming)

We made the decision that since we were about as close as we were going to get, we might as well head south on a day trip to see Redwood National Park in California. So, bright and early, we set off from Medford, OR via Grant's Pass, OR and Cave Junction, OR on Hwy 199, the Redwood Hwy. We crossed into California about 10am, and were immediately met with an Agricultural Inspection Station! They were very friendly, and our one lonely apple was allowed to continue on with us! We drove to Crescent City, CA on the coast, and then meandered south hoping that the ocean mist would clear... to no avail! So, about 20km south of Crescent City at Big Lagoon, we gave up hoping to see the sun and turned back north again. We drove back into Redwood National Park and took the Newton Drury Scenic Bypass (Mr Drury being the man who basically single-handedly saved the redwood forests)... a wonderful idea, as it took us right through an incredible area of the park. The park looked exactly as it does in the photo above... green, green trees with blue, blue sky and white, puffy clouds... worth the drive, absolutely!

In some sections of the park, the ocean mist hung right in the top of the trees. Of course, the tops of the trees are 200' high in places!

In the heavy, thick stands, the trees are so huge and the canopies so dense that little light makes it down to the forest floor... leaving great areas of shadow and shafts of light.

In the brighter areas, the "red" in redwood becomes very obvious! The bigger the trees are, the greater the definition in the bark. The huge trees grow arrow straight, and the forest floor is littered with fallen giants, all acting as "nurses" for the growing trees.

This shot shows the truly magnificent scale of some of these trees. At "Big Tree" in Prairie Creek Redwood Park, the sign says "23'7" diameter"... and park literature says the largest recorded redwood in the area measured in at 40' in diameter!!! Until you stand at the base of one of these 200' high monsters and look up, you can't truly understand the impact of something that size! It was well worth the long day's drive to see them!

Sadly, on the way back after we had crossed into Oregon, we noticed several helicopters taking off and heading north as we drove northeast on Hwy 199. A short time later, we first smelled and then saw the smoke... a forest fire had started sometime between when we drove down at 10am and when we were driving back at 5pm. By the time we came out of Grant's Pass and looked back, several valleys were filled with hazy grey smoke. Hopefully, they get the fire under control before too much damage is done.