The Mystical North Coast

I'm on the Humboldt coast in far Northern California.  It's one of my favorite places.  The redwoods are majestic.  The country is serene.  Fog, mist, and rain add an ethereal, surreal aura to the scene.   And...then there are the elk.  These critters have just gotten out of school for the day.  But before returning home to fire up their laptops and write research papers, it's time for a late afternoon snack.

I visited Lady Bird Johnson grove for the first time in a decade or so.  It was a great morning with a combination of fog and sun...perfect for fine pix of the majestic old growth forest.

Redwoods grow very fast, reaching heights of 200 feet in less than two centuries.  In fact, in 2000 I visited a grove near Rotorua, New Zealand that had been planted only 100 years earlier and the trees were at least 200 feet high!  After the tree gains the forest canopy, it grows more horizontally than vertically.  Thus, the fat redwoods are the oldest.  This tree is most likely at least 600-700 years old.  It was already growing when Columbus reached the Bahamas.

There is great beauty and diversity in the forest floor.  Ferns abound.  From here clear up through the Alaska panhandle, over a thousand miles to the north, coastal rainforest abounds. 

A mossy shrub fronts the giants.

A day with some sun and some fog provides infinite combinations of light in the primeval forest.  Such days are common here.

In winter, the deciduous trees of the forest are revealed as shrouded in moss.  Again, this pic could be taken anywhere from California to Alaska in the lush coastal forest. 

Trillium Falls, in Redwood NP.  The falls are accessed by a fairly new trail, only 15 years old at the most.  I just found out about the trail yesterday and hiked it today...a fine stroll of 2.7 miles, with enough climbing to make a decent workout for the Venerable Pinniped.

This large driftwood log indicates the occasional ferocity of nature in these parts.  The log is separated from the redwood forests by flooding rivers, filled by massive storms carrying moisture from the tropics.  The log is swept out to sea, then deposited high up on the beach by huge waves spawned by the same massive storms.  Huge driftwood like this can be found on all the pacific beaches from Sonoma county north to Alaska.

Another intriguing spot on the Humboldt coast is Big Lagoon.  This is it, with fog shrouded hills in the distance.  Again, the misty weather of the North Coast provides superb lighting.  The ocean proper is to the right of the picture, separated from the lagoon by a large sandbar.  During big storms, either the lagoon or the ocean overflows, and the two bodies of water meet.