Redwood National Park - Last Day

The weather saved the best for last.  Although parts of the park were still clouded this morning, Trinidad, which is only 15 miles south, is in bright sunshine.  We are hoping for a beautiful sunset, but you cannot always tell with coastal fog.

This morning's view at Sea Cliff around 8 AM Pacific

We ventured further north today, just past Kalmath.  There is easy shore access and a few trails that give a hiker some interesting looks.  Although our first stop was not for a hiking trail.  It was for something that isn't permitted any longer.  It's a tunnel through a tree.  Redwoods can survive this because the center of the tree is actually dead.  No nutrients pass through it.  The layer between the center of the tree and the bark is where the nutrients pass back and forth.

Sometimes fire will actually burn out the center of a giant redwood, but the tree continues to survive.  In fact, if the bark is burned away and the center becomes fuel for the fire, over time the tree will seek to heal itself, by growing bark around the damaged portion of the tree.

The tree tunnels or "touring trees" continue to live, although it definitely weakens the tree.  There was a tunnel tree inside of Yosemite until 1969.  The weight of a large snowfall toppled that one.  There are three trees through which cars can drive within the vast boundaries of Redwood National and State park, but they are all in private hands now.

The Toyota Yaris we are renting fit through easily but a Jeep just ahead of me scraped its mirrors even though the driver tucked them in so that he'd have more room.  Photo credit belongs to Jan.

Once past the touring tree we continued north.  We found a spot with a nice vista of the shore and an easy walk down to the sand.  It's dark grey.  

The tide will usually cover most of the rocks on the shoreline.  As a result they are encrusted with sea life.

I am not usually optimistic about pictures of us when someone offers to take them.  After some cropping this one isn't bad.  Nothing tops the image of our two heads (and only our two heads) with a massive glacier behind us when a touring partner took it in Norway.  

A bit further south we pulled into an area called Yurok, pronounced like "you rock" as if Ashley Teater named it.  There is a loop trail which cuts through the forest and then out to the shore.

 And then back to Sea Cliff where all the fog burned off and the scene is spectacular.

Tomorrow we head to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  There is only one route that we can use because of the fires.  We were told to be prepared for significant traffic delays.  We'll be ok with that.