Lady Bird Grove

We only have a few more days to immerse ourselves in the lush forests of the Northwest before returning to the high desert of Aguanga for the winter months. 

Saturday was a beautiful day to visit the redwoods. Although the fog was heavy at the beaches, the sun was shining and the temperature was near 70° at the Lady Bird Redwood Grove, located in the Redwood National Park, in Northern California.

You could get a stiff neck here very easily. It's a good thing the trail is wide and free of rocks and roots.

The tops of these giants looked very healthy from below.

You can't help but pose for the classic standing next to the big tree picture .

Or, standing inside the burned out base of a living Redwood.

Many of the trees showed burn scares from past wildfires. Because of their size, moisture content, and thick bark, a redwood can survive a wildfire. The picture above is of only the middle portion of the trunk of a fire-damaged tree. There was just as much trunk below this section, and where the split ended there was significant healthy, living growth going up.

Most of the old growth trees are alive and well. As the natural cycle goes, some have fallen and are decaying to nourish the forest floor. I found this dead trunk interesting because although seemingly dead, broken off, and deteriorating on the bottom, it supported a healthy growth of new plants and/or branches on its top.

Experiencing the magnitude of the forest as a whole is memorable and will sustain my heart in dark future times. I also tried to stop for a moment to savor the perfection of the symmetry and fresh greenness of the needles in the dappled sunshine.

It is hard to take a picture of an entire redwood while walking among them. This was taken in the parking lot where I could get far enough away to capture the full height. 

Although the trees in this grove are impressive, they are not the largest, or the oldest. We will be seeing more in the next few days.