in the POD - mountains, redwoods, and coast...oh my!

Breakfast overlook

Trinity Lake, WhiskeyTown, CA

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We left Yosemite midday and drove out of the valley, up over the mountains of the Stanislaus National Forest, back into the central valley of CA and then up, up again into the Shasta National Forest and then down again .... to the spectacular Pacific coast. I swear we encountered at least 4 different weathers in the 2 days on the road. Green and moist with clouds suspended between the mountains, dry and rich in the central valley, majestic snow caps in the Shasta Range, and then clear  blue and windy on the coast.

touching the clouds

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We passed through so many picture perfect towns nestled into the mountains. The Shasta Mountains was the home of many of the gold rush communities and there is still evidence of this past there. Weaverville -  the oldest of the CA gold towns once was the home of over 2,000 Chinese miners. The town is on the National Register of Historic Places and now has a new performing arts center - which was showing "The Sound of Music"! Seeing that the area is known as the Trinity Alps it seemed quite appropriate. Alas .. we did not stay to see the show.

After all the mountain climbing, the green and the deep ravines we finally descended to the Pacific. Wide, glorious, and the ever crashing waves welcomed us there.

Pacific Coast

North of Eureka, CA

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our campground

Redwoods National Park

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We headed back into the forests to the Redwoods National Park - totally on my bucket list. Needless to say they were everything I had hoped them to be..... 

WOW.

This is truly old growth forest. Dark, wet, low growth of ferns and mosses of all kinds on the floor of the forest and then - BOOM - trees that reach up like huge fingers into the sky. I have never seen trees that tall and that big around. There was a tree section at Yosemite that was probably 12' across. They had dated the rings on the tree ..... one not too far from the center was "The Battle of Hastings, 1066"!  Most of the trees in the redwoods were much wider than that one! Kind of beyond comprehension.

Among these giants I felt even smaller than I feel most of the time - both in the moment physically and in the general cosmic view. SO much history, so much time - oh, the stories that they could tell.

looking up!

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Tim making his entrance between two redwoods

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Everything was so lush and dreamy - kind of unreal and magical. Tim said he felt like we were living in Avatar. It was of another time, another place.

I make my first fire in a forest 

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 mosses of all varieties on the floor of the forest

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It was incredibly beautiful, tranquil and quiet. We will leave this dreamscape and head back to the coast again and then work our way up to Oregon.