In view of National Day, Stvn was off work on Monday and we decided on a little adventure to
Big Basin Redwoods State Park. It was a wise decision as traffics were better and surprisingly it was still fairly crowded at the park. Can't imagine how it will be like on weekends. The drive there was rather challenging with the never-ending winding roads which culminated in a single narrow lane. I am so proud of Stvn for taking on the challenge since he's still pretty much a newbie in this driving business. I got to hug a sequoia tree thus checking off another item on my bucket list and it was Father-of-the-Forest, no less. Father-of-the-Forest- this grand old tree that is estimated to be 2000 years old.
Years ago at a church camp, we were asked to meditate on the greatness of the trees - why are they so majestic. Being at Big Basin brought me back to that question. We also learn that it is California's oldest State Park, which was established in 1902. We did an easy Redwood Trail where we got to see among others the Father-of-the-Forest, Chimney Tree which is entirely hollow from base to top, and Mother-of-the-Forest - a 329-foot-tree - the tallest in the Big Basin. It's pretty awesome seeing all these majestic trees standing tall and i can't help but feel small literally and figuratively. It was a nice comfortable hike and there was a strong woody smell. Awesome!
Chimney Tree in the middle
An afternoon in the woods
It started with the winding roads.
Lunch
Hugging Father-of-the-Forest. Circumference at ground:66FT9IN. Height:250FT.
I love this Campfire Center. We sat here and chatted about campfire and sang couple of songs. I can only imagine how wonderful it is to do a campfire here.
We took a different route to return home and this is one of the vista points. Gorgeous isn't it?
At the end of the day, i suffered slight car sickness and was happy to greet civilization once again.