Crusin' the North Coast

Haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm back on the road so will resume. Currently I'm ambling up the coast, dodging a fierce inland heat wave. Temps near the ocean are in the 60s and 70s, then it warms up about a degree for every 40 miles you go inland. 106 today in Portland, one degree off their alltime record!! The 107 was first hit on July 30, 1965; I was 13 and spent the day sitting in the sprinkler at home. Here, in the primeval forest at Humboldt Redwoods SP, the temperature was mild and the atmosphere was fabulous. I'm not religous in the traditional sense, but I do attend church from time to time. This day, in the towering old growth redwoods, I was in church. I'm also in church when I go to Crater Lake; Yosemite; Sequoia; the beach; and the Arizona desert in spring bloom.

Yesterday I took a hike in Redwood NP, along Prairie Creek. In addition to the big trees, the forest is a kaleidoscope of green. Ferns, sorrel, and other ground cover plants abound. The world of light and shadows is forever fascinating.

This pic is blurry if you blow it up...you really need a tripod in the deep woods to take good photos and I didn't have one. But I thought it was cool that the park folks had carved a bench into a quintessential nurse log, complete with masses of growing things all around the seat.