Redwoods National and State Park (12th and 13th of August 2013)

A look high up

After the overnight stay in Grants Pass in Oregon we drove back to California, direction Redwoods. Redwoods are amazing trees!!! They are the tallest living trees on earth, reaching heights of up to 115 meters and they can live for up to 2000 years. During the Age of Dinosaurs the tree was wide spread, but now they can be found only in a small area along the Pacific Coast of California and Oregon. Its scientific name is Sequoia sempreverdis (which probably honors the Cherokee leader Sequoyah) but it is referred to as coastal Redwood. It has a good resistance to insects, fungi and fire due to its tannin-rich bark. 

A fallen Redwood

Redwoods reproduce by seed but also by sprout. If the tree gets burnt, a new sprout grows from the trunk base, using the root system of its mother tree. Another interesting feature of those trees is that their big root do not grow vertically into the ground, but mostly horizontally. In fact roots penetrate for about 3-4 meters, but  spread out to 18-24 meters! We learned that there are other 2 types of Redwoods belonging to the same subfamily of the Sequoioidae: the Sequoiodron gigantum also called Giant Sequoia (of which we will speak in one of our next blogs) and the Mastosequoia also called dawn Redwood. The Giant Sequoia can be found only in a narrow area in the Sierra Nevada region in California, whereas the dawn Redwood can be found only in China.

A drive-through tree

Driving in a Redwood forest is really something beautiful!! All those big and tall trees surrounding you make you feel save and protected! Of course we made countless stops along the road to take pictures and to walk among the refreshing shade of the giants. 

After sunset we continued our drive along the coast and stopped in Arcata for the night. While looking for the apartment of our CSer we had the biggest surprise ever!! We had a totally random encounter with our friends (Lorenzo's far cousins) Josh and Chris Collette. Josh is currently studying in Arcata and Chris came up with him to help him move into his apartment. When we met them they were heading to a Mexican restaurant for dinner with some of Josh's friend. We just could't believe it. And the fun thing also was that we would go to their parent's house in Windsor the following day and stay with them for a week. So we joined them for a margarita before going to our CSer host Jesse.

The Big Tree

The following day we started for another BIG day with the Redwoods, but this time not in the park anymore but along the famous "Avenue of the Giants", a scenic Highway (now called US 254)  running trough US 101. We were headed to  Windsor, where we would stay with Steve and Pamee Collette. The drive from Arcata is only about 4 hours, bur as we stopped so many times along the way we only arrived at about 10 pm at the Collette's house. We stayed 1 week with the Collette's, from 13th to 20th of August, and we had a great time with them!!!