The Magical Wild Shore

There are vast numbers of magical spots all over, but it is really hard to beat the Pacific coast in far Northern California and far Southern Oregon.  Here lies a combination of beauty, peace, grandeur, and mystery that is very rare indeed.  The weather adds to the magic.  The region can appear benign, under bright sunshine, almost Mediterranean.  But more often it's shrouded in fog and mist, or battered by winter storms.  This is the sandspit between the sea and a lagoon in Humboldt county.  Every few decades a massive storm...or perhaps a tsunami...brings the ocean completely over the spit. 

Trees rise into the mist above the cliffs of Humboldt.

The coast is home to several herds of Roosevelt elk, who nonchalantly hang out wherever they feel like hanging out.

The Lizards are most at home in the desert, but they too appreciate the fecundity of a nurse log in the redwoods.

The big kahuna redwoods soar to the sky in Redwood National Park.

This nurse log hosts an entire ecosystem...trees, ferns, sorrel, critters.  It fell on a hillside and is suspended above the ground for most of its length.  After a few centuries it will collapse, adding nutrients to the soil below.

When I'm on the far northern CA coast I usually stay in Trinidad.  It's a tidy little coastal village, nestled in the redwoods and Sitka spruce, with all the modcons and a cool harbor.  Fog and mist is prevalent.

There's a little fishing fleet in Trinidad.  The buoy in the background adds a pleasant clang every few seconds.

An L bridge over Brown Creek, in Redwood National Park. 

Don't know that I'd ever seen a tree with these markings.  Blow the pic up and you'll see a couple of notches near the bottom, plus an axe scar almost midway up the pic, mostly grown over.  Lumberjacks had started felling this tree.  They wedged planks in the notches, so they could chop the tree up at the axe scar line...much less wood to cut through than if you started at ground level.  But they had taken only a few strokes of the axe...when they quit, and left the tree alone thereafter.  There's a story behind this tree.  Probably all the folks who knew it have passed on.

The US 101 bridge over the Klamath River has golden bears at each end, on each side.  They're quite well formed.

Biomass!  I went for a stroll in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park this afternoon...had not hiked this particular trail before.  Not only were the redwoods tall, but they were fat...massive!  This means they are very old.  Like people, redwoods grow tall first, when they are relatively young, then fill out in middle and old age.  Some of the trees here seemed as massive as giant sequoias.

Da Big Kahuna redwood reaches for the sky, surrounded by his peers.

Redwood roots, like those of the giant sequoia, only extend a few feet below ground level...maybe 10 at the most.  However, redwood roots entwine with those of their neighbors, increasing stability.  But a robust winter storm can topple them.  After awhile the roots become their own ecosystem, nurturing new growth.

Now I'm on the southern Oregon coast, on a crystal 65 degree day.  Ahhh!  Perfection.

Sitka spruce predominate along the immediate coast from far northern California up to, well, Sitka...and probably farther north in Alaska.  Though smaller than redwoods, they are still massive trees and have dense, intricate branch systems.

I'm staying at the Gold Beach Resort...have been here several times before.  It's a short stroll to the sand from my oceanfront room.  The northern beaches have masses of driftwood, lying between the foreshore grasses and the water.