The Ferny Redwoods

We love the redwood forests so much, and Jedediah Smith State Park is our favorite of them! We have been missing this place since our last trip here in 2014! It really is the most beautiful, ancient forest. You feel like you have gone back to the time of the dinosaurs! 

We drove along Howland Hill Road when we first got to Crescent City, which is a beautiful drive along a narrow dirt road through the old-growth redwoods. Right along the road everything was grey and covered with dust from the cars, which was strange because it is usually so wet and green everywhere! And we were really sad when we got to the Millcreek trail, which we loved last time, and saw that it was closed for renovation! The beautiful, secret Grove of the Titans is not so secret anymore and the park rangers are building up a boardwalk to avoid people trampling everything as they go off-trail to find them. I suppose it's for the best, but we were so disappointed that we couldn't hike that beautiful trail!

But—we consoled ourselves as we talked about it that evening—there are many more beautiful places to hike in the redwoods, and maybe we would find somewhere we liked just as much!

We spent part of a morning seeing Stout Grove, which is the one place everyone goes at this park. It's beautiful and flat—more of a walk than a hike, and with lots of fallen trees to climb on, so it's a nice spot for little kids and babies.

Everyone always likes to go into these little tree-homes.

Even the sort of medium-sized redwoods are SO BIG!

Seb found another caterpillar for Gus. He was so pleased!

I like it how in the redwoods—and I guess by the ocean in general—the clouds are such a noticeable part of the weather. They're always lowering down and making mist, or clearing out suddenly and letting in sunshine you didn't even know was waiting above them. I can't decide if the forests are prettier in the mist or with sunlight coming through the trees! Luckily we had some of both.

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Crescent City house

The rental house we stayed at in Crescent City was so beautiful. It was a little ways outside of town, by a lake, and there were chickens and lambs and a frog pond and a big deck out back overlooking the lake. We saw a beaver working on his dam in the pond, and one night we heard a great horned owl hooting at us from one of the trees.

It was only a few hours' drive from Coos Bay down across the California border to Crescent City. Gus slept peacefully with his "Caw" in the car.

Sam had much to say about this "Elk Crossing" sign. Mostly because the pose of the elk is ambiguous…is he facing toward us, head turning sideways to look back over his shoulder? Or is he looking away from us and we're staring at his hindquarters? Apparently it is the strange positioning of his feet that makes it unclear.

The lady that owned the house was SO NICE. She met us there and walked us all around the property to make sure we knew we could play all over and explore everything. She told us to feel free to gather eggs from the chickens (Goldie LOVED doing that) and she kept stepping back to look at us and exclaim, "Oh, you are such a nice big family!" Eventually she took this picture of us, to remember us by, I suppose. :) She said, "I assume you are Mormons?" and I sadly missed the perfect opportunity to say, as President Nelson said we ought to, "If you mean, are we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…then yes!"

She and her husband were Catholic and had a big family of their own (six children)…and they also had this beautiful Last Supper carving in their dining room. She got it when her children's Catholic School (where she was once the principal) closed.

Once we got settled in the house, Ziggy and Gus took the opportunity to run and run and run in this long sunroom at the back of the house.

There was a little apartment in what I think used to be the garage. Abe and Malachi slept there, along with St. Francis or whoever that is. It was really nice!

The lane to the barn, where they hold weddings and events sometimes

A little redwood grove

Walking back to the house from the barn

There was a whole big flock of lambs that lived by the house, and they were guarded by a faithful watch-donkey, Fresca. She was VERY vigilant and never took her eyes off us when we walked by!

The daisies were out everywhere in Oregon and California too, all along the roadsides and in every grassy field. We had a huge field of them growing by our house too. They were so beautiful! I wish they would grow wild like this in Utah! I wonder why they don't—too dry?

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Crescent City

We thought Crescent City (just outside Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park) was a lovely place. I was checking the weather there for several weeks before we went and it seemed like it was always 61 and cloudy, or 61 and rainy. Great weather for a temperate rain forest!

Junie loved these seals. Or sea lions? How does one tell the difference?

Beautiful lighthouse--during low tide you can walk across the little causeway and take a tour

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The Grove of Titans

As I said earlier, although we (especially Sam) were certainly aware that the Grove of Titans was somewhere in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, we were content just to be close to them and think about how big and awe-inspiring they must be, compared to the relatively-small-but-still-enormous trees in the rest of the forest. As we were hiking one of the trails, we took a rest to feed the baby and let the girls go to the bathroom. Sam and Sebby took them off into a more private spot, and as Sam started to walk the girls back to us, he saw an enormous tree trunk up above him. "That's the biggest thing I've ever seen," he told Sebby. He wanted to get a better look, so he scrambled through the underbrush for awhile until he was next to the tree trunk. He paced off its width and guessed it was about 26 feet across. After we'd been waiting a long time (wondering what on earth Sam was up to!), Sebby came running back to us all excited. "Daddy found one of the Titans!" he said. I thought it probably wasn't one of the actual Titans, but we always like to see a big tree, so the rest of us got to our feet and went with Sebby. Now that he'd explored the area a bit, Sam could see an easier way for all of us to get to the tree without beating our way up the slope, so we all followed him until we got to the gigantic tree. Once we got up close, it was pretty obvious that this was a REALLY big tree---bigger than any we'd seen so far.

We spent a good while looking up at the huge spreading branches and marveling at the sheer size of the thing. It was amazing! Beautiful, stately, and ancient. We talked about how many things had changed since this tree started growing---probably over 2000 years ago. It's very humbling to be in the presence of such an enduring thing.

After enjoying the tree for a long time, we finally headed back to the trail, and walked to our car talking all the way about what an amazing stroke of luck it had been, finding the huge tree. Though we'd been totally happy with our visit before, we felt so extra-happy to have found a Titan---or at least a Titan-sized tree.

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Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

We've been to see the redwoods in California before. We went to the Humboldt Redwoods once, and Muir Woods another time. Every time it's been a remarkable experience. But every time, Sam has talked wistfully about going even farther North, to see the BIGGEST redwoods of all. These, he had read, were in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park up near Crescent City---quite distant from the usual California destinations. So when we were planning out where to go during his Comp Time in May, I thought this might finally be our chance. "So it's not just a trip," said my cousin when I told her about it. "It's a pilgrimage." It was. Sam tells his art students there are certain pilgrimages An Artist must make in his or her lifetime---and the Jedediah Smith Redwoods is one of them.

We had to put in a 15-hour drive the first day, but when we woke up the next morning and started driving up the coast, we knew it was going to be worth it. I wish I could convey how mysterious and primeval it felt, driving through the mist-shrouded forests. You drive through a couple other state and national parks on the way from Arcata to Crescent City, and they are awe-inspiring. The foggy air seemed like the perfect setting for all that beautiful greenery.

The State Park is pretty small---I think there was a visitor's center, but we never found it. Everything seems a little bit wild and even most of the trails are marked very minimally---except for the one to Stout Grove, which is where we went first. The sun burst out through the fog as we drove up, and suddenly it seemed like THAT was the perfect setting for the beautiful trees. Stout Grove has a couple really big trees, but Sam had told me that somewhere in the park there were even bigger ones. Biologists (botanists? arborists?) thought they had found all the biggest redwoods, but only a few years ago, someone stumbled on a whole grove of never-before-seen trees that were huge---significantly bigger than any ever measured before. They call it the Grove of Titans. It was a really exciting discovery (I remember Sam telling me about it a few years ago---he keeps up on that sort of thing) but its exact location is kept secret to protect the trees. Sam had read about people who had hunted for it, looking for clues in the book that tells about the grove's discovery, The Wild Trees. It sounded amazing, but neither of us imagined we'd ever be able to see it ourselves. Especially with all the kids along, it wasn't the type of hunt we even had time or ability for. Still, it was cool to know that the Titans were somewhere out there in the forest, and we were right there close by---breathing their air, if you will. :)

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S.F. (unexpurgated version)

Self-portrait with Shadows

A few more things from our trip.  Happier things.  Textures and snippets we might forget someday---but that will bring everything rushing back when we see them again.

Bonneville Salt Flats.  If you've never been there, you should go---it's otherworldly.  The textures and paleness and vastness of it all make it feel like a dreamscape.  The children like to run, and run, and run.

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I left my [monkey] in San Francisco

This post is very sad.  

Brownie has been with Sebby from the beginning, the very beginning.  He has been lost and found so many times I can't even keep track.  He has been everywhere with us.  He is the best monkey.

Seb drew this right before we left on our trip

In San Francisco, we left him at a playground.  (The one in the picture above---perhaps in that very tunnel.  I can't look at this picture without getting teary.)  We were two hours south before we realized it.  We weren't planning to even go back through the city on our way home, but I kept imagining Brownie lying there, waiting for Seb.  I couldn't handle it.  The next morning, I asked Sam to take us back, and he (good patient man that he is) agreed, though with little hope.  Seb didn't seem that worried, even though we told him Brownie was probably gone.  I felt in my heart we'd find him too.  But we ran back into the fenced playground; rustled through every bush, rummaged through every garbage can, prayed.  Brownie wasn't anywhere.  Finally I couldn't justify looking any longer.

That night, driving into the dark towards home, crossing the Bay Bridge, it hit Sebby for real.  "Brownie!  Can we go back?" he sobbed.  I thought his heart was breaking.  He crawled up to my seat and I sobbed with him; his face in my shoulder, my tears in his hair.

I know.  It's silly.  Of course we'll get over it.  We do have Brownie Two (as Sam keeps telling me, when the starter goes down, it just means someone else gets more playing time).  Seb's fine.  I'm not quite fine, yet, though.  I miss that little Brownie, and who he was to my Sebby boy.  I don't like thinking of him all alone in San Francisco somewhere.  I don't like sad endings.

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California coast

After the redwoods, we drove out to the coast and found a place to stay out there, so we got to go running together on the beach the next morning---which was awesome. (We almost never get to run together anymore!) The light was so beautiful.

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