Thursday, March 6, 2014

ON THE ROAD: REDWOODS MAGIC

Ukiah, CA


A drenching rain fell on Seaside, Oregon, as we pulled out this morning onto Highway 101. Despite the deluge, the vistas were still awe-inspiring, with a roiling sea churned up by 24 hours of high winds, tall bluffs in the distance and a winding highway.


Oregon's coast is rugged and undeveloped. The 101 skirts along it, goes inland behind enormous, pine-tree shrouded mountains, then pops out on the water again.


We rolled into California, and the rain eased. Then we entered the Redwood National Park, which should be called Lucky Charms, because it's magically delicious.

On the Avenue of the Giants, shockingly enormous redwoods almost disappear overhead, brilliant shamrocks and ferns coat the floor beneath. The whole place looks like a billion dollar landscape project. Crazy.

For scale. That's a single tree beside the car.

As we pulled over a small hill, a herd of freakin' elks (or is 'elk' plural?) appeared, right on the road. I stood up through the sunroof and tried to take photos. I'm the worst wildlife photographer. I'm too excited. The whole time I was saying TheresAnElk, TheresAnElk, TheresAnElk, OMG TheresAnElk!!!




After nine hours on the magical road, we rest in Ukiah. How do you top a day of Giants and elk? Working on that one...






4 comments:

  1. I love Avenue of the Giants! Such a fun ride. I'm jealous, since I know too well how much fun this kind of journey is.

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    1. I actually thought about you guys as we were driving through. You are our road trips heroes!

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  2. You're bringing back a lot of memories. We've been to all those places!

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