...From the Redwood Forests...

...This land was made for you and me... Thank goodness for the people who, decades ago, had the foresight to conserve and preserve some of the most spectacular (and vulnerable to human destruction) ecosystem you can imagine.

We had two days to spend in the old growth redwood forest along the northern California coast.                 Mini Road Trip!               From the Central Valley you need to drive through the hills to the west. We turned onto Highway 20 at Williams. You can see a slight tinge of green if you look hard but this time of year they should be emerald green. That green is the grass that began to grow after our early January rain. We have had negligible rainfall since and there has been no more growth. This is the time of year that ranchers in the non-irrigated hills count on abundant forage for livestock. Very scary to think of another year of drought to this degree.

                   This is a view getting closer to the hills. The almond trees are beautiful this time of year but I am disturbed at how many acres of land all over California have been put into almonds now. That's a story for another time however. It seems I didn't take more photos until we got to our first stop.

              From the Humboldt Redwoods State Park website: "In the early 1900s, loggers came to what is now Humboldt Redwoods State Park to cut down lofty ancient redwoods for grape stakes and shingles. The founders of Save the Redwoods League thought that was akin to 'chopping up a grandfather clock for kindling.' From the acquisition of a single grove in 1921, the League has raised millions of dollars to build and expand this park. Today Humboldt Redwoods spans 53,000 acres, an area almost twice the size of San Francisco. About one third, or 17,000 acres, of the park is old-growth redwood forest—the largest expanse of ancient redwoods left on the planet."                                                What is special about an old-growth forest?                  The size of the trees.

                                                 The mix of tree sizes. Unlike a reforested clear cut, there are trees of all ages and sizes and this makes for an open forest instead of a monoculture of trees and brush that you can hardly walk through.

               The ecology. When old trees fall they open up space for light to reach the forest floor and opportunity for new growth of other species.

                                                      The grandeur.

              We drove through The Avenue of the Giants, stopping along the way to get out and walk on the trails.                  We ended the day at the beach.