Redwoods

Saturday, June 2nd-We arrived at Jedediah Smith Campground last night and our neighbor came over and introduced herself.  She was a wealth of information on what to see in the park.  The next morning she came over to bring us some literature and we invited her to spend the day with us.  It was wonderful having a tour guide and she took us all over.  We got to experience all the terrain the Redwoods has to offer, trees, canyons and beach.

Stefan was thrilled to find this little guy at our campground

We started our journey driving on the Howland Hill Road that was open for the weekend.  Passed through wonderful trees and groves.  The wild rhodadenderans were beautiful against the backdrop of trees.

Our second stop was the Prairie Creek Visitor Center.

A surprise was seeing the poor elk antlers that got stuck in a Redwood tree and then got petrified.

The grove behind the visitor center was lovely and had many unique things to see.  The marks on this tree are the  footholds from the days of using long saws to cut the tree down.  Notice the hemlock trees growing out of top of stumps

We reallly enjoyed walking here.  The ferns were as stunning as the trees. Pictures don't do the filtered light justice.

A sample of an octapus tree.  Redwoods can grow over logs.

Enjoying the sword ferns.

Other trees like to grow out of these stumps.

With Barbara, our Redwood guide.

Our next stop was Fern Canyon.  It was almost an hour drive but so worth it.  This canyon is shown in Jurassic II movie and I can see why.  It is magical with all the ferns and moss on the walls.  Barbara pointed out the five finger ferns that were clinging to the walls.  Janae and Stefan had some freedom to run up the creek and explore and they loved it.  

This mama elk wasn't happy with us as we walked pass to the Fern Canyon.  Almost charged us.

Awesome view with the pond, elk and ocean in the background.  This was on way to the fern canyon.

We're free from our mom and dad!

Our next stop was Gold Bluffs Beach which was very close.  There had been a short-lived small gold mine on this beach.

The highlight here was skipping rocks.

We enjoyed seeing this pasture full of elk.  There was a little newborn that was so cute but the grass was too tall to see her in a photo.

On the drive home, the sun finally came out at around 8:00 p.m. and the views were stunning. Stefan said as we were driving back, "Thanks mom for bringing us on this trip. I like it more and more.  Today, Disney World and the Airboat ride were some of my favorites."

Barbara recommended this restaurant right at the beach in Crescent City. It's 8:30 at night and look how sunny it is. We're all starving. Janae and Stefan had calamari for the first time and were estatic over it.  We all were.  So fresh and meaty. We ordered more and learned they use the steak of the squid not the rubbery part that one normally gets.  Because it was so late when we left, we declined desert and told the kids it was too late for a campfire.  Stefan was very disappointed and a lady at a nearby table heard him and came over and said she had been watching him all night and that he was going to grow up to be really special. She gave him some money to buy desert.  Turns out it was a $20 bill.  She is an attorney from Australia who is about to be  married to the gentleman she was with, a professor at Stanford who won the Nobel Prize for discovering El Ninno and global warming research.  Never a dull moment.

THANK YOU BARBARA FOR SHARING THIS AWESOME DAY WITH US!! YOU MADE IT SO SPECIAL!