Northern California Redwoods

Replicas of Indian houses at Patrick's Point

The redwoods on the California coast are taller than their inland cousins but with a smaller diameter. The northern Californian coast is a confusion of National and State Parks that contain 45% of the remaining coastal redwoods, 39 000 acres compared with the more than 2 million that existed in 1850. Summer brings the fog which supplies half the water supply that allows the coastal redwoods to survive, a tall redwood requires 500 gallons of water per day!

Ceremonial Rock (sea stack)

We started our coastal journey at Patricks Point State Park, a very short drive off Hwy 101 into a Garden of Eden. Our campsite overlooked the coast and very green foliage. We spent two days wandering the local walking trails that were

incredibly green and full of wildflowers. There were some rock outcrops (sea stacks formed from molten basalt pushed to the surface millions of years ago) to climb inland and just on the coast. The rock stacks out to sea were packed with sea lions. Symi and Rob went exploring on the local beach that was full of interesting drift wood, one piece made into a see-saw. In the evening we watched the fog roll in, ate outside with rugged up with warm clothes and watched the local rabbits graze right next to our RV.

Plenty of sea lions out here

Next we headed further north destination unknown, we had wanted to stay at Elk Prairie Campground but our reservation request was rejected due to the max 27ft RV length allowed. We dropped into the visitors centre to be told there are some

Elk Prairie Campground

sites that a 29ft will fit into. We arrived at the campground and found a beautiful site overlooking the Elk Prairie meadow, perfect for spotting the previously endangered Roosevelt Elk. Also sun is very welcome here, the camp sites in the trees were very damp, cold and full of insects. The first afternoon we decided to go to Fern Canyon which is on the coast and famous for being used in the filming of Jurassic Park. It was a ride or walk option. We choose the walk option and set off at 2pm starting behind the campground in old growth forest that is as good as it gets! When a redwood

gets stressed it creates another trunk, some trees were clusters of massive trunks. One we saw we nick named the cubby house due to the ability to climb up and explore around the inside of the cluster of trunks. Symi decided she would love to have this in her backyard, it was so big it probably wouldn’t even fit. The amazing redwoods continued until we eventually arrived at Fern Canyon, enjoying the 50ft high vertical walls covered in ferns (surprise!). After a quick rest at the beach we turned around. Poor Symi began to realise she had been taken on a spontaneous mega-walk. There was some distraction from the tired legs with another play in the cubby house. We arrived back at the RV at 7.30pm, exhausted. The estimated walk distance was 20km!

Fern Canyon

 The next day was more casual with a bike ride in the afternoon through Elk Meadow, onto the beginning of the Lost Man Creek Trail (bikes allowed). Just a gentle 17km spin. Fiona went to a ranger talk that night on the radar station that was located near here. It was built during WWII as there were instances of Japanese planes trying to drop firebombs in the redwoods in order to cause massive fires and disruption. This particular radar station was interesting because they spent a lot of time trying to disguise it as a farm house. A bit funny as after they finished it they then had to erect a 50ft radar tower - this being the very early days of radar! The rangers in the national parks give fantastic talks which are always full of interesting facts. They are all passionate about the parks they work in.

Bridge on Lost Man Creek Trail

On our last day at Elk Prairie Rob decided he wanted to see the tall trees grove. The location of the very tallest, Hyperion at 379ft is kept secret, the tall trees groove has the next biggest. Unfortunately the grove access is via a very steep road inappropriate for RVs. The option was to ride, starting

up the road that gained nearly 2000ft in the first 3 miles! This was followed by a 7 miles fire road that was mainly descent, then the 4 mile tall tree grove walk. The grove was stunning of course, the trees so big that it’s impossible to represent with photography. Luckily there was some descending at the end of the ride on the Lost Man Creek Trail. A 1900 ft high speed descent on fire road that had flow and rarely required brakes, massive fun to end a 45 mile ride. Fiona was relieved to see Rob after being away for over 7.5 hours (surprisingly neither Fiona or Symi opted for this ride). Fiona and Symi had their own adventure riding to Elk Meadow and doing the Trillium Falls walk. Symi was very happy to find more cubby house trees - though none as big as the one on the Fern Canyon walk.



 

Roosevelt Elk

 



Short cut across a gulley on a fallen tree