Epic western trip, part 4

After Oregon Caves, it was a quick drive to the Pacific coast of California, and of course, the next primary target for foresters--the redwoods!  As much as the sequoias impressed me, I think I found the redwood forests more compelling...They are more extensive and denser (more trees per acre), and the moister environment supports a lusher forest and understory--note the large ferns in the picture above (Star Wars fans should recognize the redwoods as the forested moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi).  Below, the kids really enjoyed playing in the complex redwood forests:

Huge, tall redwoods were everywhere--the redwoods are impressive in diameter (but not as big as the biggest sequoias), but they are known to be the tallest trees on the planet:

Such a pretty forest:

The kids checking out the rings of a "small" redwood, only about five feet in diameter where they cut it across the trail:

It was easy to get dizzy, looking up into the towering canopy:

Some neat things were to be found at the ground level, too--like the banana slug that we spotted along one trail:

I think most people that garden or work outside are familiar with slugs--these slimy invertebrates (think a snail, minus the shell) are nuisances to many people (especially those growing certain vegetables and flowers), but a neat part of the ecosystem.  Banana slugs are much larger than the garden-variety ones I've grown up seeing (the one pictured above was about 4-5 inches long, and they get bigger than that) and they're bright yellow and look like, well, a banana!  One of the neat parts of the redwoods is how accessible they are--below is a picture of one of the highways that passes right through one of these impressive groves:

Did I mention these trees were impressive?  Check out the kids by this giant:

Below, Hope and the kids are dwarfed by one of the bigger redwoods we saw:

Another scenic highway through a preserved old-growth redwood grove:

You may or may not be able to read the sign by the tree pictured below, which is known as the "Founders Tree", but this giant is 346 ft tall and over 12 feet in diameter!

Both redwoods and sequoias are tough survivors, and fire and the other elements have molded some of them into very interesting shapes.  Note the the hollow giant below, with Beth inside of it for scale:

 

Fire and decay have removed much of the base of this tree, which is still thriving!  Of course, the elements do claim some of these giants, like the big tree that blew over, pictured below:

Hope and the kids could live in the hollow base of this giant:

We spent parts of two days in the redwoods area; not enough time in my mind, but we needed to move on.  As we headed south through California, the haze thickened considerably as we approached one of the larger wildfires burning in that part of the state:

The smoke grew increasingly dense, and we fully expected to see flames along the sides of the road--we didn't, though, and the skies cleared as we got to a different valley.  We did get a chance to see the large helicopter base being used to support fire fighting efforts, as well as a camp where hundreds of fire fighters were staying while they fought the blazes in the area:

Our trip then took us down into the San Fransisco Bay area--the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge with San Fransisco in the background was taken from a national park just outside of the city:

And crossing the Golden Gate Bridge:

One of the neater things we found about a lot of California was not the urban sprawl or heavy traffic, but the extent and diversity of agricultural plantings across many parts of the state.  For example, anyone want to guess what crop is pictured below?:

If you guessed artichokes, you'd be right!  We spotted acre after acre of artichoke fields on our way to our next stop, the Monterrey Bay Aquarium:

The kids enjoyed the aquarium, but really enjoyed the hour or two we spent later that afternoon along the Pacific Ocean as they played in the tidal pools and chased around small snails and hermit crabs.  I think they all decided that was their favorite part of the trip--not exactly what forester parents wanted to hear, but not bad overall!  Of course, that was before we stopped at the Jelly Belly candy factory, whose primary product are the jellybeans Ronald Reagan made famous:

After nearly two weeks of travel and fun, we stopped in California's state capitol, Sacramento, so I could attend a business meeting.  The evening before my meeting, and our departure from the state, we looked up my Uncle Noel and Aunt Barbara, who now live in a suburb of Sacramento next to one of their daughters (Liz) and her family (husband Jack and two daughters).  Uncle Noel and Aunt Barbara, who I hadn't seen since perhaps high school, graciously welcomed Bragg Family South into their home, and we had a very enjoyable evening visiting:

After my talk the next day (Thursday), we started our return trip; over two thousand miles to drive back over three days.  As many of you are aware, we got a phone call part way through on Friday that there was a water leak in part of our house--this news accelerated our drive back to Monticello, but we didn't arrive until Sunday.  I'll save the details of our clean-up for the next blog; thus ends our 2014 epic western trip.  We really had a good time; we saw lots of cool things, people, and places, and I hope the kids remember this trip as fondly as I did the big western trip my parents took us on back in the early 1980s!