A Backwoods Drive Through Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park


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While driving up US 199, Heather and I took a turn-off to look at an interesting bridge.  Before long, we ended up on a dirt and mud single lane road through a stately forest of redwoods.  We spent a couple hours driving through this grand stand of giants with hardly another person to be found.  For all the traffic that Redwood National Park gets, I can’t believe that this place doesn’t get more visitors!

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This redwood has a spiral trunk.  Most have straight bark but this one spirals.  Neat!

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Monsters above.

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Heather on a walking path we found.

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Some people walk this trail but not nearly enough.  If everyone understood what these forests are like, there wouldn’t still be redwood logging.

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These things are just so giant!

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If there are such things as Ents, this has to be one of them.




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A small river running through the forest.

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The Audi making its way along the path through the forest.  This is yet another place that the German engineers that designed this car never anticipated.

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A bridge over a small creek in the forest.

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A small stream running through the redwoods.

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Yup, we drove a luxury German car through here.

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The Smith River.


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Heather took a picture of me at work.

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A small river in the forest.  The water was incredibly clear and clean.

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Primeval moss hanging from the trees.

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Giants everywhere!

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A tree once fell across the road.  Someone kindly cut it out of the way.

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Clear mountain water running through the redwoods.  This is what streams, creeks, and rivers should look like.

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Heather on a hiking path among the trees.

IMG_5620Under a spiral tree.

Crescent City Sunset


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Sunset in Crescent City on a nice day is outstanding!  The rock just to the left of the sun with the tree on it also holds the harbor lighthouse.

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An interesting rock formation on the beach.

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Heather conquered the rock!

An interesting test of my camera’s slow motion abilities.

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Danger is the French word for fun!  Note: don’t stand here during a tsunami.

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The sun shines right through the lighthouse windows at sunset.

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The sun sinking below the waves.

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Heather and me sharing the sunset.

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This is a beach further up the coast from the lighthouse.

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There it goes!  No green flash on this night.

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At the harbor.  This area was hit pretty hard by the 2011 Japanese tsunami.  Note all of the sea lions laying at the end of the jetty.

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Sea lions and seals on a floating dock and in the water.

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The local Del Norte Triplicate had a front page story about bigfoot.

IMG_5531There were some awesome place mats at the Chart Room restaurant.



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The last fading glow of light over the inner harbor.