It was important to me to see the redwoods and be by the ocean as much as possible. I love the vibrant stillness of the redwoods and the vastness of the ocean. So we headed over to Highway 1 on the Pacific Coast, arriving first in Crescent City. 

Crescent City is at the northernmost tip of California, and is vulnerable to tsunamis because of its crescent shaped, south facing configuration. This is a small part of it, but it was our first taste of the open Pacific and the grey sky. So soft and damp. I loved it! 

Journeying south, we came to more fog and redwoods, eventually taking a 25 mile redwood tree loop through the Avenue of the Giants. It was established and protected by Save the Redwood League in 1918, and other citizens as well, including John D. Rockefeller, Laura and James Mahan. The “immortal tree” was on one of the pullouts.

And then this tree that had fallen in 2006.

Impressive. So humbling. Redwoods have shallow roots that are interconnected to the others in their region. It makes all of them stronger. I think we can learn from this even more these days. 

And of course, along with the beauty, were sobering moments of seeing the effects of fires in the region. Whole mountain sides of redwoods burned for miles and miles. 

But I must say, the fires were hard to see, but not as bad as the clearcut forests in Oregon. Fires are a natural part of the cycle of forest life. In fact, redwoods can send out seeds during fires. Clearcuts leave nothing for the soil to hold onto. It is harder for the mountain to recover from clearcuts. I hope all forests will be able to grow and thrive again.