Yesterday, Paul and I explored further into the Redwood National and State Parks than we'd yet been. We drove several miles down a winding gravel road, through a locked gate (we had to get the passcode from the visitor's center first), and then hiked to the Tall Trees Grove, where exist -- literally -- the tallest trees in the world. The redwood tree that held the wold record for tallest tree until 1994 is in this grove, and the current world record holder is somewhere in the area, although it's not marked and there's no trail to it. We've seen lots of big trees already, but we figured we had to take a trip to this place while we still live in the area, if only to be able to say we'd done it. Besides, redwoods are awesome, and I'll take any chance I can get to explore these woods.
Here's the area from a nearby overlook:
More tall trees, plus mist (it was an overcast, sometimes-rainy kind of day):
And here's the grove from ground level:
Of course, the trees were huge and impressive -- as redwoods are -- although we couldn't get an especially accurate sense of their height from our lowly position on the ground. We couldn't even see the tops of most of these trees! (I guess that says something in itself.)
So we wandered around these giant trees, just generally being impressed. And in the process, we found lots of interesting things to look at on the forest floor.
The molluscs were out in force, chief among them that famous denizen of the pacific coastal forest, the Banana Slug. :)
This individual wasn't huge by Banana Slug standards, but it was still pretty darn big; here's a penny for comparison:
We found another Banana Slug in the process of consuming a leaf:
I've never actually thought about how slugs eat before, and this creature's very normal biting action really surprised me! I made this rather shaky video with my iPhone -- it's still weirdly shaky even after YouTube's stabilization process, probably because I was filming the slug so close up -- so watch if you're up for it. You can hear the crunch of each bite; mmm, what a crispy leaf: We kept finding snails all over the place as well, including a bunch of these large and beautiful Pacific Sideband Snails:
And I'm not sure of the exact species of these smaller, ghostly pale snails that kept showing up, but they were also quite cool:
Lots of Yellow-spotted Millipedes were sharing the forest floor with the molluscs, including this pair of millipedes who were on the move despite being otherwise engaged:
A chipmunk (one of a couple of species in this area, but I'm not sure which one) watched us carefully while it worked over an acorn from atop a moss-covered trunk near the path:
And as if these woods weren't already fantastical enough, we found several blooming coralroot orchids sprouting up like little intricate flags next to the path. I'd never seen coralroot blossoms in person before, even though various species of coralroot also exist in the woods in the eastern U.S. These are strange, leafless, parasitic plants that get their nutrients from their host fungi underground. And then they send up these beautiful little flowers; some of the flower spikes we saw were more than a foot (maybe two feet) tall:
Here's a closer view of this Summer Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata; perhaps this is some particular variety that lacks the usual spots on this flower's lower lip):
We also found Pacific Coralroot (Corallorhiza mertensiana), with its narrower purple-and-yellow flowers:
I love orchids, and finding new members of this diverse and fascinating family in the wild is always extra exciting for me. Yay, orchids!
And that about sums up our tall trees adventure: redwoods, molluscs and other crawling critters, and orchids. I'll add that before we even got to the woods, we had a treat in the form of Cliff Swallows nesting under the canopy outside the visitor's center:
It was so cool to see these little birds swooping around and guarding nests-in-progress that ranged from barely a ledge (like in the picture above) to fully enclosed bowls:
There are so many interesting things to see out there!
How is everything in Northern California so cool? Really, every new place I visit turns out to be absolutely amazing. It's an awesome streak indeed, and I have every reason to think it'll just keep going.
This past Sunday, Paul and I visited Fern Canyon in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Even after getting to the park, it took a long drive down a tiny winding dirt road (and through some streams that were worryingly deep for my little car) before we arrived at the trailhead for the canyon. It was worth it:
Oh boy, was it ever worth it:
Yes, that's a footbridge in the bottom right of the above picture. Here's another picture with Paul for scale:
I mean, seriously, what is this place? We wandered along the gurgling stream and scrambled over giant fallen tree trunks that have been so worn by weather and peoples' feet that they felt like stone. All while vertical walls of ferns towered on either side:
Most of the ferns were these gorgeously dainty Five-finger (or Western Maidenhair) Ferns (Adiantum aleuticum):
Thick carpets of moss covered the walls where little waterfalls trickled down (looking very cool from below):
What look to be some rather large liverworts were growing among the moss in some spots:
Here's one more picture looking up at that waterfall, because I just love how these ferns look from below:
Birds flitted around -- mostly at the top of the canyon -- but we came across very few other creatures while we wandered and marveled at our surroundings. Except for a few of these big yellow monsters... Banana Slugs!
And we met several cool creatures on our way to and from Fern Canyon. Just before we crossed into the park, we saw my second (Paul's first) herd of Roosevelt Elk, looking majestic and peaceful in a meadow right along the highway:
(The elk in the middle left actually looks pretty skinny; I hope she's OK.)
A few stocky babies were hanging out in this herd. I love those faint spots and that extra-fuzzy neck:
One fawn took the time for some very vigorous feeding (Mom seemed unfazed at the punching-bag treatment):
Then, coming out of Fern Canyon and walking briefly onto the neighboring beach (because of course amazing woods and beaches are right next to each other here), we found some smaller creatures to admire, including this (probably) Mylitta Crescent butterfly (Phyciodes mylitta):
A brilliant red (I think) Cardinal Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum illotum) patrolled near a small stream:
This intricately patterned moth (unknown species) was remarkably well hidden in the vanishing shade of a tiny piece of driftwood:
I still have so many new places I want to visit, and old places I want to visit again. I guess I'll just have to get outside as much as I can!
