This upcoming series of “Out & About” articles focuses on a trip my family and I just returned from that took us through the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We were excited to visit an area we’ve never been to before, and follow in some of the footsteps of the original Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804-1806. So, after traveling two weeks and 4,313 miles (RT from San Francisco), through five states, with stops in 15 National Parks, forests, recreation areas, wildlife refuges and eight State Parks, this begins a summary of our long but awesome journey!
If you visit Northern California, there’s one natural feature that literally stands out – the big trees… Specifically, the tall Coastal Redwoods, the world’s tallest living thing. As we drove north from San Francisco we took a short detour from California’s scenic Highway 101, to enter the Avenue of the Giants, a 30 mile corridor of huge redwood trees, and our first introduction to these towering giants. Along this drive, and many more to come, you drive right past trees that are wider than your vehicle, and very close to the road! These redwoods are enormous! The trees can exceed heights of 370 feet tall; that’s 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty! The State of California, along with the National Park Service, has preserved many of these groves of redwoods in several state parks and Redwoods National Park.
When you walk among these giants you can’t help but to stop and gaze up, tilting your head back to the point where your neck cramps up, trying to see the very top. I was so mesmerized at my first look at these tall trees that when I bent back to try and photograph the top, I stumbled backwards, fell on my butt and disappeared into a stand of ferns! I jumped up quickly to make sure my wife Theresa and daughter Darby didn’t see me. But at the same time, the cool shadows the canopy creates, along with ferns that grow four feet tall on the forest floor, keep your eyes looking down as much as up. The landscape is almost fantasy-like. As a matter of fact, these redwood forests are so unique that scenes from many familiar movies have been filmed in them… Movies such as “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (Ewok forest), “Jurassic Park: The Lost World” and “ET.”
While we walked through these giant redwood forests, we were constantly amazed at how lush these forests were. Tall trees with huge canopies that let in very little light, standing guard over dense beds of huge ferns, some growing almost as tall as us. We also took notice to how quiet these redwood forests were. We heard very few birds while hiking in the redwoods. Maybe we simply visited at the wrong time of the day, or maybe the birds were so high up in the canopy that we just couldn’t hear them singing. Okay, maybe my hearing isn’t as acute as it once was, but it was still pretty quiet!
Our wildlife sightings in the dense redwood forests were limited to a couple squirrels, a few Oregon Juncos that were down low, an occasional mouse/vole and my favorite critter, the Banana Slug, which I told my son Tyler to find one for me. His comeback to my request was classic. “Okay, I’ll keep my eyes PEELED!” After an hour, he found one of the bright, yellow, slimy critters crawling on a low bush.
Overall, we visited three California State Parks with outstanding Coastal Redwood groves, and Redwoods National Park. I highly recommend that if you have a chance to visit this area, or even find yourself in San Francisco (four and a half hours south), get up there, and take a walk among the giants! You can’t see these magnificent trees anywhere else on Planet Earth.
Rich Wood is Region Manager with the Montgomery County Division of Parks, Trails, and Historic Sites. He has a B.S. in Environmental Education/Interpretation from Penn State and enjoys all things outdoors.
