Coastal Forests

Few things left me completely awestruck on this trip as did the forests - especially the Redwood Forest. It simply astounds me! I do not understand why these trees are so massive compared to normal trees, and I found myself driving and wanting to do some research to find out if there is any other place on this planet that produces trees this size, and why they grow so large. Standing alone in the Redwood Forest is as humbling as standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. I am so small in this universe.

No picture does them justice, so when you get a chance, go see them in person and make sure you get there on a bright sunny day in the middle of the day. With cloud coverage or a setting sun, you would be left a blanket of blackness. It can be overwhelmingly shocking how massive and overpowering these treees are when they block out the sun so well.

Driving-

Normal forest

Giant
Forest

Small redwood tree beside a large normal tree.

Cut out door is 6 feet tall, four feet wide.

Wood warts

...and a river runs through it.

http://www.nps.gov/redw/index.htm

Hiking in Southern Oregon

I love to hike but rarely do it now that I live in Phoenix. Hiking in Phoenix is brown and plain with few plants and trees, thus little variety in scenery. Hiking in southern Oregon was AWESOME and green with lush plants everywhere! Having just receovered from pneumonia, this moist coastal air helped to clear my lungs. (click photos to enlarge)

http://www.nwcoast.com/oregon/southern/

Day 8: Northern California

For much of this day, it was windy. Often, when I stopped to take photos, I could only be out in the wind for short periods of time. Sometimes it gusted so hard I nearly fell over, but the wind didn't detract from the coastal beauty.

I stumbled upon Fort Ross, which was established by the Russian - American Company, a commercial hunting and trading company chartered by the tsarist government. Trade was vital to Russian outposts in Alaska, where long winters exhausted supplies and the settlements could not grow enough food to support themselves. Baranov directed his chief deputy, Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, to establish a colony in California as a food source for Alaska and to hunt profitable sea otters. After several reconnaissance missions, Kuskov arrived at Ross in March of 1812 with a party of 25 Russians, many of them craftsmen, and 80 native Alaskans from Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. After negotiating with the Kashaya Pomo people who inhabited the area, Kuskov began construction of the fort. The carpenters who accompanied Kuskov to Settlement Ross, along with their native Alaskan helpers, had worked on forts in Alaska, and the construction here followed models of the traditional stockade, blockhouses and log buildings found in Siberia and Alaska. I loved Fort Ross for it has the ability to make you feel like you've been placed back in time to see life as it was so long ago. (Note the cemetery at Fort Ross--click on photos to enlarge)

http://www.northcoastca.com/