Redwood National and State Park - Day 2

The fog won the battle of the day again, although as it approaches early evening, there is sunshine breaking through offshore.  It tends to keep the temperature in the mid sixties, which is actually an asset if you plan on hiking and we are.

First hike of the day was the Prairie Creek trail, named for the water seen in the image above.  A flatter hiking trail than yesterday.  Redwoods like water so the trail is lined with hundreds of them.

These are two separate trees.  Their roots are entangled.  In order to help keep themselves upright in wind and other environmental pressures, redwood trees will seek to entangle their roots with neighboring redwoods in order to increase their stability.

Here's an interesting question.  Is it 10 separate trees or 1?   It's a trick question and there's really no wrong answer.  There are 10 separate trunks shooting upwards but they are all sharing the same root system so it is one organism.  Sometimes different seedlings combine to form this.  Sometimes when the tree is under stress (food, water, light) it will send new tree trunks upwards.  In this massive example it could be a combination of both of those factors.

This is what the needle of the redwood looks like.  These are close to the ground so they are spread out to try and pick up more light which has a harder time making it down towards the floor of the forest.  Up towards the top of the tree the needles tend to be more tightly wound in order to better preserve the tree's moisture where the tree gets more sun.

If a tree falls in a forest does Jan hear it?  This one fell across the trail at some point.  Park service staff use large saws to cut the tree in half and remove the obstruction.  You can gauge the size of that trunk by noticing the tree is taller than Jan.  Obviously it is very large but it is not the largest tree we saw.  Not even close.

Usually trails are in good shape but this one was especially difficult even though the guide book said it was easy.  The Moorman trail opposes you with significant elevation.  This section is so warn that the trail surface is a fine, red powder.  I managed to get up this section but concluded the next set of obstacles, which required that we shimmy around a downed tree, on a very narrow section of trail with a large drop, was ill advised.  It was also ill advised to go up this section in the image because no matter what I did coming down I could not control my descent.  It was like being on a slide made of fine sand paper.

This section of the forest was recovered (purchased) from a logging company.  It is thick with trees and most of the time that proves unhealthy for the entire ecosystem.  Sometimes, in order to improve the health of sections like this, the park service will hire loggers to come an and selectively remove trees.  When forests were clear cut, the replacement trees were planted at the same time and all grow upwards together at the same rate.  In a normal forest environment different trees germinate at different times.  Also, more than redwoods will grow.  There are generally some Douglas firs.  In  healthier forest the floor is not as thick with vegetation.

And back to our view of the Pacific.  Since I took this picture the sun is actually breaking through out over the water.  Over our head it is still foggy.  Yet it is very peaceful!