December 4, 2019 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California

Cloudy and 50's.

I woke up this morning to sun shining in the window. I rushed outside to take a good photo of the bus here at Kamp Klamath, but the sun went behind a cloud before I got the photo. The scenic drive at  Prairie Creek Redwoods was still closed due to storm damage from the bomb cyclone blowing stuff on the road. So we walked up the road. It is a very scenic drive and walk. We hiked trails we have not before because they were too close to the road and had car noise. 

Our first stop was the Big Tree. What big tree, there are millions of big trees in the redwoods? The photo with the 6 Johns around it was taken our first trip here in 2013. John with more big trees. You have to have someone in the photo to get scale to how big these are.  

John inside a burnt out tree holding a lit lighter.  Wild tree roots between two trees, and two trees that started live on top of a downed tree and sent roots to the ground.  A huge  branch with moss on it and ferns growing on it. A cut little mushroom.  

The ferns on this walk were taller than we are. 

John hugging yet another big tree. The trail goes right between these two trees. John looking up more big trees. 

This massive tree fell across the trail last week during the bomb cyclone high winds.  Can you see John in this photo of the downed tree?? He is stuck inside of it, afraid it will crush him.  

Ferns and moss covered big leaf maple trees.  The Corkscrew tree is a couple trees wrapped around each other and eventually becoming one tree above this point.  

Big trees to walk under. John is in another fern canyon, the sides of this one are two huge downed trees with ferns growing on them.  

A cute bridge on the trail. In elk meadow is a warning sign  Danger, Wild Elk, do not approach, but these are actually deer. One of the wacky questions that tourists will ask is: How many years does it take for a deer to turn into an elk?? I once had a guy in Yellowstone ask me if a moose he was pointing at was an elk. Guess I have lived around them too long to not understand that most people don't see them much.  

Sunset on the way home.