Today’s Tahoe trip was cancelled. I was so exhausted I didn’t get up until 6:45am and I felt this was too late to start a solo one day snow trip to Tahoe. So I decided to go to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. I did not get out the door until 10am.
As I drove on HWY 17 I found myself missing this drive. I miss the mountains and the trees. I turned onto Mt. Herman Road into Scotts Valley Felton area to get to Henry Cowell bordering Roaring Camp and UC Santa Cruz. I parked on the road like the internet posting said to save money on parking entrance fee.
As I walked in, right away I was happy. I had a lot of joy walking and watching dogs get walked. I took the meadow trail and it was full of beautiful spring flowers covering every inch of floor beds. I walked through camp sites, currently covered in orchid greens. I was sad to think of how all of this would be cleared for camping. It is just magically beautiful and amazing, what a gift from nature. It will be very different in a few weeks, dry, sandy and brown.
I went on the Redwoods Trail and walked among old redwood groves. The first one I came across was 3,500 years old. The roots are most likely much older than the growth. I love redwoods. I learned bugs repel from redwoods. That is why redwoods are such a favorite for furniture and architectural structures. It really is the reason why I went to Santa Cruz for school, it made me happy to see redwood trees and smell them each day.
A docent named Edgar, who serves a an volunteer, educator, trash pick up, and staff gave me an entire tour. As he talked and walked our group grew to 15 in our tour. I saw a little girl from Melbourne and his family joined the tour and walked in barefoot.
I learned the difference of a redwood tree and others. Redwoods don’t have moss around it. I even felt the leaves of a hazelnut tree. I have always wanted to know what a hazelnut tree looked like. It was soft and velvety, like silk worm.
The trail beds were covered with bay leaves. I love the smell of bay leaves and the fresh ones are magnificent, sweet, woody, full of body. It was a wonderful aroma therapy stroll.
I learned that the inside of a redwood tree is dead and only the outer shell is alive and that the trunks and branches will merge and morph into one. The rings of trees will grow from one root. The tree will grow growth to weigh and balance the tree keeping it upright making up for the missing root.
Fremont tree can fit 30 people inside, once the honeymoon suite, window and stove hole can still be viewed.
Welsch family protected these redwoods and collected twenty five cents as entrance fee when people visited on a picnic or for rolling into roaring camp. At night the trains carried redwoods chopped by Henry Cowell Company. Big Basin was saved because rails were too difficult to get to. Last descendant of Henry Cowell was 90 years old in the 50’s and made a deal to turn roaring camp, Henry Cowell and Big Basin into State Park but have it be called Henry Cowell State Park. Trees that was chopped of 100 years ago left the land barren. Roots later grew trees to what is now the redwoods we see.
What an amazing wonderful day this turned out to be.
Then at 3:30pm Edgar asked for my name and phone number. Wow, his spiritual holy record that he was playing for the past 5 hours just went “scratch”. His head is so down under. Dude this guy is like the same age as my dad, super gross, totally inappropriate in all regards. Anyways, as shocked as I was, I didn’t let this put a ding on my day.
I tested out new North Face gear today. I wore the brown soft shell jacket, it really blocked the cold wind chill. Although the sun shined bright today the wind was arctic cold. The new wire frame, soft mesh backing hydro pack is bigger than my old one and fits a notebook.
Today just a few hours of hike inflamed my back, I’ve got so much injuries, I can’t keep track.
I went on the Redwoods Trail and walked among old redwood groves. The first one I came across was 3,500 years old. The roots are most likely much older than the growth. I love redwoods. I learned bugs repel from redwoods. That is why redwoods are such a favorite for furniture and architectural structures. It really is the reason why I went to Santa Cruz for school, it made me happy to see redwood trees and smell them each day.
A docent named Edgar, who serves a an volunteer, educator, trash pick up, and staff gave me an entire tour. As he talked and walked our group grew to 15 in our tour. I saw a little girl from Melbourne and his family joined the tour and walked in barefoot.
I learned the difference of a redwood tree and others. Redwoods don’t have moss around it. I even felt the leaves of a hazelnut tree. I have always wanted to know what a hazelnut tree looked like. It was soft and velvety, like silk worm.
The trail beds were covered with bay leaves. I love the smell of bay leaves and the fresh ones are magnificent, sweet, woody, full of body. It was a wonderful aroma therapy stroll.
I learned that the inside of a redwood tree is dead and only the outer shell is alive and that the trunks and branches will merge and morph into one. The rings of trees will grow from one root. The tree will grow growth to weigh and balance the tree keeping it upright making up for the missing root.
Fremont tree can fit 30 people inside, once the honeymoon suite, window and stove hole can still be viewed.
Welsch family protected these redwoods and collected twenty five cents as entrance fee when people visited on a picnic or for rolling into roaring camp. At night the trains carried redwoods chopped by Henry Cowell Company. Big Basin was saved because rails were too difficult to get to. Last descendant of Henry Cowell was 90 years old in the 50’s and made a deal to turn roaring camp, Henry Cowell and Big Basin into State Park but have it be called Henry Cowell State Park. Trees that was chopped of 100 years ago left the land barren. Roots later grew trees to what is now the redwoods we see.
What an amazing wonderful day this turned out to be.
Then at 3:30pm Edgar asked for my name and phone number. Wow, his spiritual holy record that he was playing for the past 5 hours just went “scratch”. His head is so down under. Dude this guy is like the same age as my dad, super gross, totally inappropriate in all regards. Anyways, as shocked as I was, I didn’t let this put a ding on my day.
I tested out new North Face gear today. I wore the brown soft shell jacket, it really blocked the cold wind chill. Although the sun shined bright today the wind was arctic cold. The new wire frame, soft mesh backing hydro pack is bigger than my old one and fits a notebook.
Today just a few hours of hike inflamed my back, I’ve got so much injuries, I can’t keep track.
