Explore CA - Redwoods

July 21, 2013

FINALLY!  Art has been eager for us to go here for awhile.  We intended to go yesterday but piddled our morning away so that by the time we would have gone there we would not have much time until we had to turn around to go home.  So today we are off to Big Basin Redwood Forest State Park (or something like that).

I would say overall, today was wonderful.  Really excellent, minus two things: the drive there, and the drive back.  The drive there was tortuous for me.  Art drove, which we learned was not the way to go.  It was so twisty and turny for nearly 40 minutes.  The entire trip was only about an hour, but that 40 minutes of it was terrible.  I got really car sick, and was fighting to not throw up.  I have never gotten car sick before, so this was new, and unpleasant.  After awhile I could not even look at the map anymore to see if we were in the right place.  Once we got to Big Basin State Park, we thought we were in the clear, but it was FOREVER driving through the park before we finally made it to the parking and visitor center etc.  Awful.  It took me a good 30 minutes to recover, and feel better.

Of course, Yannick fell asleep very nearly when we got there.  However, shockingly, he transferred asleep to the stroller.  We decided against having lunch right away (no WAY was I eating), and decided to get going on the hike.  Good thing we brought bug spray, b/c the mosquitos were horrendous.  However, they did respond well to bug spray and left us alone.  I had to spray the stroller to keep Yannick safe.

Here are some trees before we got to the start of the trail, which we thought were amazing....until we got to the heart of the traill!

Wyatt in front of one of the redwoods we thought was big.

Shayna, Zachary, Wyatt at the beginning of the Redwood Trail for families (aka, very easy, very wide, lots of cool things to see, not too long - a mile loop I think).  Yannick was still asleep in the stroller.

here is our official trail guide.  We bought a trail guide for $0.25 and Wyatt made sure we read the facts associated with each numbered hot spot.

Wyatt consulting the bigger trail map of the entire park.

Hey, look who woke up in time to enjoy some redwoods!

Boys by a half burned redwood tree

Here, the tree burned out from the inside but the outside was still amazingly alive, and came back together at the top to continue growing

Looking up.  many of these trees have been burned by lightning and fire

This was a group of trees all growing together, like in a friendship circle

This tree did not survive a fire, is burned up from the inside and looks like a teepee.

This is Shayna & the boys standing inside the burned out tree from above

Father of the Forest tree

Shayna with the Mother of the Forest tree  Wyatt thrilled to be taking more pictures!

We stopped at the Father of the Forest tree to have lunch.  There was a long bench there, and we all ate a bit from the picnic lunch we had - turkey, tomato, cucumber, cheese wraps, oranges, goldfish, etc.

We walked a bit more, then the trail loop was over.  It ended at an amphitheater whose benches were made out of downed trees.  Alongside the seating was a fallen Redwood which the boys had to check out thoroughly.

Here is Yannick investigating (with my keychain flashlight courtesy of the Chamblee Police) the root system of the downed tree.

Shayna on top of the tree with Zachary hiding out with just his head peeking out

Zachary and Wyatt peeking around the roots

Zachary and Wyatt both on top of the tree

We did not let Yannick get on the tree because it was just too high up and a bit dangerous getting him up there.  Even Wyatt was tentative.  Zachary of course was eager to get up there and start climbing.

We stayed in the amphitheater for quite some time while they played on and around the tree and finally graduated to the stage for some impromptu performances.  It was a good opportunity to finish off the pita chips and salsa!

Finally, we needed to start heading back if we wanted to be on time to church.  In an effort to lessen my car sickness, I drove home.  Which helped tremendously!  I did not feel sick at all coming back.  I felt tense around all the curves, and pulled over many times to let people pass me, but no nausea!  FOR ME.  Unfortunately, Yannick did not fare quite so well.  Zachary and Wyatt had drifted off to sleep, and we were hoping that Yannick would too.  He started crying, and would not stop even with his paci, and then, bleech, the threw up.  Ick.  But he stopped crying.  I pulled the car over to take care of everything, and of course Z and W awoke.  Unhappiness abounded in the back seat. :)  But we survived.  We missed a turn, and went home a different way, which was really great because we got to see some wineries, some horse ranches and some incredible houses.  We had just enough time at home for me to throw on a skirt, Art to change Yannick's shirt, and clean up most of the throw up in the car (it was not a huge amount to start with - more like a large verp), then off to church.  Z, A, W all dirty from hiking, but no time to change.  And we were even almost on time!

It was a long day, but very enjoyable.  I would do it again - if I am driving!