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Redwood Grandeur

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This entry was posted on 10/12/2006 9:32 PM and is filed under California.

September 13

For those of you less learned in the ways of Redwoods and Sequoias, as we were,  here is a diagram:

 

Personally, I prefer the Coastal Redwoods of N. California.  They are more graceful and dignified.


[My 6'4" husband who is used to towering, not being towered over.]

Since we had a long drive ahead of us from the Redwoods to Vacaville, we did a methodical drive through of the park, stopping at the major viewpoints and walking through Lady Bird Johnson Grove, where the park was dedicated in 1968.  The overarching message that the park seemed intent on communicating was that fire is an important part of the cycle of life in the forest.  Dying trees fertilize new growth and open up the canopy so that saplings can take root and grow tall. 


[Fire has scorched the inside and outside of this Redwood, but it is still healthy, growing and strong.]



[A friendly Canadian guy who seemed quite taken with the Redwoods snapped this shot for us -- just before asking us to take a picture of him and his car in front of this trunk.  I guess he didn't have a signficant other.]

And tall they grow indeed   The foggy, temperate weather of coastal northern California creates ideal circumstances for Redwoods to grow over 300 feet, from a seed the size of a tomato seed.  They used to cover close to 2 million acres, but when the gold rush in the mid-1850's fell through, enterprising miners turned to logging instead.



The trees are, after all, a logger’s dream come true.  Many that we saw would stretch nearly the length of a football field if you laid them down on it.  Of course, that’s hard to comprehend when you are standing at the base of one of them.  It is a humbling experience that impressed upon me the smallness and frailty of my frame and the brevity of my days.  Not only did the redwoods tower over me, but they average 500 to 700 years, capping out at 2000. 


[Me feeling very small in front of "Giant Tree"]


[Feeling small again...]

After a few hours of gawking, we hopped in our dusty, cluttered Civic for a mad dash to Vacaville, hoping to be there in time for dinner with the Helgesons, our dear friends from former NJ days.  We received a warm and genuine welcome to their home, and they poured out hospitality with as much abundance as we remembered from visits to their home at Keswick in NJ.  It was a joy to sit at their kitchen table again, bringing back floods of fond memories from middle school days when we and their oldest daughter Christi romped about, rustling up all sorts of fun and mischief together.


[Sunset in Vacaville]

Incidently, they are responsible for first introducing us to authentic Mexican food, which we have sought diligently ever since, not once stopping at Chipotle.

It was a jolly good time in all, reminding us once again of how richly we are blessed by the loved ones in our lives.
 

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