Humboldt State Park: Intro to the Redwoods

As a preface to this post, I'm just going to say that we (and by "we," I mean Sean) took somewhere around a thousand photos in our six days in the redwoods, so these are just a tiny preview of the amazing landscapes we experienced in a week of steady hiking and exploring the area. They don't do the place justice, but, you know, it's pretty hard to capture the sight of 380 foot trees towering over your head in a prehistoric rain forest. If you haven't been here, you MUST visit. Soon.

Our campground at Humboldt. Interestingly, the campers who had our site the previous few nights spent hours raking and sweeping the site entirely clean of all leaves, twigs, and pebbles, etc. (Note the rim of debris separating our site from the neighboring one and the piles around the small tree.) It was odd, but kind of nice as well.


Magical...

The Green Man

Horsetail by the streams

The famous Banana Slug on a path. We were so fascinated the first time we came across this prolific animal that we sat down and watched its SLOW crawl for about 20 minutes.


Sean, totally in his element


Our camp version of Caramelos -- quesadilla sandwiches inspired by a Mexican taco shop. Fat, handmade corn tortillas, lime and Herdez salsa...heavenly when eaten in a gorgeous forest setting.

There were many trees hollowed out like this (mainly as a result of fire), though this one was pretty special


Standing in tree pose in a hollow made by an old fallen giant




Sean at the base of an overturned tree. It's like standing at the heart of a sunburst.


We went for a long hike one day and ended at a wonderful swimming hole in the Eel River that we could not resist. There were lots of people enjoying the warm, sunny day and refreshing (but not at all freezing) water. Totally unexpected, but absolutely gorgeous. ...We came back the next day to swim as well...