klamath

From Foruna, we drove just a few hours to reach the south end of Redwood National Park, where we planned a day of hiking complimented by a motel stay in Klamath, a tiny speck on the map that missed being incorporated into the complex of state and national parks that patchwork this part of the state.
We started in the Ladybird Johnson Grove of coastal redwoods. The self-guided trail had numbered spots you could read about in a small pamphlet. Monroe loved counting up the numbers.

She said "This one says two because I am two!"

I took the photo below from inside a sequoia. The exterior bark is incredibly resistant to fire (how else could the trees live thousands of years?) and has no sap or resin to spread flames. Ever once in a while though, a sequoia is struck by lightning. The tender branches ignite at the top, and fire can spread throughout the body of the tree, creating a hollow cylinder of fire proof bark (sometimes still alive and ready to put up a new sprout.)

Here is me inside the same stump.

One of the reasons I love the redwoods is the sense of the circle of life that you get here. Even dead sequoias are still so alive--they play hosts to ferns, fungi, and even entire trees! Nature is like this everywhere--nothing wasted, nothing lost--but in the redwoods you can see it going on right in front of you.

After our hike through the redwoods, we headed for a very remote stretch of the coast. It's amazing that you can be in such a dense, silent, dark forest and then emerge onto a beautiful beach. There are a few birds native to the area that actually nest in the tops of old-growth redwoods by night and fish on the open ocean by day!


Returning from the beach, the road was in use by an Elk! We eventually got to pass (and snap a photo.)
We were the only guests at the adorable "Motel Trees" in Klamath, CA, so we upgraded to a little suite where Monroe could have her own room.