November 27, 2018 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California

High 50's, rainy and foggy. I come to this part of the country and think we've seen the redwoods so many times we can skip them. Then we go to them and I remember how awesome they are. They are HUGE. The atmosphere around these trees is incredible, kind of spiritual. We can't skip them ever.

We hiked in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. John on the trail with redwoods. Fall color on the trail. 

We started out on the Nature Trail at the visitors center. We went to do a short stroll and got sucked into the whole thing. John on the trail. Moss is on everything.  

We hiked  Brown Creek trail. We were going to do a much longer loop, but learned that there is a bridge out. So we went on the short hike and it was a good thing, we kept stopping to stare and take too many photos. What a beautiful place. We didn't get out until it was almost dark. We could have parked the car in this tree. John is in this second photo, but his camo jacket makes him invisible.  

John between two giants- hard to see with his camo jacket. It was so quiet in this valley. We didn't see anyone. The only sounds were this burbling creek, water dripping from the trees and our footsteps.  

John with more big trees. The redwood groves are named after people or in memory. There was no money to make this a park. Most of the redwoods were being cut down. They brought rich people to see the redwoods and had them purchase groves and donate them to the park. A newt on the trail.  

This first big tree is named after Gifford Pinchot, the first superintendent of the national park system. John disguised as a fern, a mushroom on a round tree knot, cauliflower looking fungus, and there are bears in the campground. A tree stump with bad hair. 

John on the trail with fog, moss, ferns and huge trees. The trees were so tall the tops were lost in the fog. Fog in the redwoods is magical. 

John with a really, really big tree. Big Tree??? There are thousands of big trees here. Redwood needles- 1/2 inch long. They are designed to precipitate water out of the fog, which is why they live in foggy places, a gnarly stump and which way do we go here?