7-18-04 California Redwoods

I started today in Crescent city CA. I had stopped the night before because I wanted to see the redwood grove just south of town. These trees are incredible! They are so huge it is hard to describe and doesn't even start to come across right in these photographs.

Not long after I started out today I met Greg from New York City who had also left his job this spring to take a grand tour of America. He has spent most of the summer rambling around the southwest and west coast. He is planning on making it up to Alaska before the winter but is really taking his time to see all the great national parks and other amazing sights along the way. we probably spent two hours or so talking about how we had both come to take our trips and what we had seen. I gave Greg some tips on places I liked and things I hadn't liked in Alaska. He too told me about some of the high points along his trip. I really wanted to try to see some of the south west along the way but time and money are both running short so I don't think I will get to them on this trip.

we both wanted to get back on the road so we exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers as well as web site information.

Today's Map

The Rugged Northern CA Coast

Massive Redwoods reaching to the sky

The way the trees reach to the sky and grow together near their crowns gives the entire forest the feel of a giant catherdial.

The floor of the redwood forest is a place unlike any other. It is quiet and still but full of life at the same time. The ferns make it seam primordial and I almost expected a dinosaur to saunter by

Burned but still living. The top of the tree can still support life even when the base may be dead. But time will lead to rot and someday a high wind might topple this grand giant.

The Qi (Chi) or life energy here is so strong you can feel it in the air. It almost feels like I can sense the forests breathing or pulse. I had prior to this felt Qi while learning some basic Qi Gong exercises but this was the first time I had ever felt Qi so strongly and in a form so pure and natural. My time today in the Redwoods was for me a very spiritual experience that has forever changed me on many levels.

The deeper I walked in to the grove the more in awe of these massive ancient trees I became.

Look at the size of these two giants they must be at least 20' across at the base.

One of the giants had fallen across the road so the park service cut it to clear the road. It is over 10' across

Another fallen redwood has split the stump of yet another fallen giant.

A massive burned out stump

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