100713 Mendocino Coast & California Redwoods

July 13, 2010 – Redcrest, CA - As advertised, the Mendocino Coast, where I’ve spent the past couple days, was rugged, wild, and scenic. And foggy. When the sun came out briefly, the water turned from angry gray and frothy to shades of blue and green with white highlights – beautiful!

The first goal of my journey was to take Highway 1 north from San Francisco up the coast, and that goal was completed this morning. Highway 1 ended; I am on Highway 101 now. The road left the coast and turned inland. (The sun has been shining ever since!! It's been warm enough that I could take my denim jacket off, for the first time in many days - not to mention my fleece jacket too. Yay!!)

I've been seeing lots of brilliant pink wild snapdragons, both along the coast and inland. It seems I've just missed the rhododendron season. I've seen lots of foxglove blooming along the roadsides around here, though.

Although, technically, San Francisco and anywhere north of it is considered "northern California", I'm in Redwood Country now, which is what I think of as "northern California". I drove the Avenue of the Giants again, and wasn't disappointed. I stopped at several places to see things or to walk through the redwood forest - "Chimney Tree” (a burned out/hollowed out tree), “One-Log House” (a huge redwood log made into a three-room house, with kitchen, livingroom, and bedroom), Grandfather Tree (an 1800-year-old tree with a circumference of 55 feet!)Richardson Grove (a lovely short loop trail), Founders Grove. [That's Grandfather Tree and me on the right.] On the last two walks I felt like I was walking on sacred ground. There is a quote I like; John Steinbeck said, “The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always…they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.” It feels that way to me, to be walking among these giants, who covered North America in the age of other giants - the dinosaurs.

I was delighted to see a pair of Stellars Jays at the Humboldt Visitor Center, then another pair in the campground. But I haven’t gotten a decent picture of one yet.

I wish there were a way to give you a sense of what it's like to walk in a redwood forest. The sense of eternity, of serenity, of immensity, of awesomeness. There are no pictures I can take to transport you there. I wish I could.