Giant trees!

Tuesday Nov. 30, 2010
In a persistent drizzle, left Crescent City, (never to return).

Highway 101 from Crescent City winds up and through Redwood National and State Parks, the second National Park of my trip. (The first was back on the Olympic Peninsula when I skirted Olympic National Park.)

Here's the sign at the entrance:

Related to the Giant Sequoia, Coast Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. Their trunks don't grow as wide as the Sequoias, but they do grow taller––some nearly 400 feet. Their trunks can be 22 feet wide at the base! (Giant Sequoias can be nearly 40 feet wide! Unreal.)

Here's a medium-size tree:

And another:

Compelled to wander in amongst these towering giants, I parked my bike and followed a hiking path a ways. Until now I thought the old-growth Douglas Firs at Mt. Rainier were impressive, but this was just breathtaking.

Walking through this forest, there was something familiar about it that I couldn't put my finger on. And then it hit me; I remembered why it seemed familiar. Here's a photo I took once I remembered where I'd seen this place:

Look familiar?

No?

How about now:

That's right, Redwood National Park was where George Lucas filmed the Return of the Jedi scenes representing the forest moon of Endor. I was on Endor!

Not finding any Ewoks, I mounted my speeder bike and sped off.

This being California, there are all sorts of amusement-park-esque attractions attempting to lure tourists. Here's the entrance to one called "Trees of Mystery" (complete with a representation of George Lucas and one of the horned aliens from the Star Wars movies):

Interesting moss-covered trees over the road approaching the teeny town of Klamath:

Staying at an immaculate little motel in Klamath called the Ravenwood:

Nice thing about traveling at this time of year is there're always vacancies: