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| Next stop on our Redwoods trail is 30 miles from Crescent City south on the coastal highway 101 to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.....we met a really nice couple here from Bavaria.... This giant is right on the side of the Newton B Drury Parkway, an 8 mile stretch of the original Redwoods Highway a scenic drive through old-growth redwood forest..... |
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| 95% of the world's old-growth redwoods are in California.... |
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| This is the top portion of The Big Tree..... |
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| One of the biggest trees in the park is surprisingly called The Big Tree, it is over 1500 years old and has a diameter of 21 feet.... |
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| This magnificent tree was nearly cut down by early settlers in the late 1800's to make a dance floor !!! Between 1880 and the early 1900's thousands of acres of old-growth redwoods had been cut down....alarmed conservationists established the Save The Redwoods League in 1918 to protect the groves for us all to enjoy today..... |
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| A short hiking trail from The Big Tree takes us through beautiful groves...... |
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| This truly was the colour of the fungi growing on an old tree stump... |
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| From the Newton B Drury Drive we head farther south on 101 and take the 8 mile Davison Road to Gold Bluffs Beach...this is a steep narrow dirt road with some nasty potholes, a ford and lots of dust...strewth it better be worth it...... |
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| And it was......the road dead ended at Gold Bluffs Beach, during the Californian Gold Rush a large settlement was established in this area after gold was found on the beach.... And it's our lunchtime salad spot..... |
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| At the beginning of The Davison Road we had passed through a large elk meadow but hadn't seen any elk.....walking back to the parking area from the beach we spy this magnificent chap.... |
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| This taken on full telephoto we didn't want to get to close to those antlers.... |
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| From the beach is the beginning of the mile long Fern Canyon Trail....a spectacular, shady canyon with 50 ft walls draped with seven kinds of fern........ |
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| The rangers put down temporary wooden plank/pallet bridges during the summer months to cross the stream but there are also fallen trees trunks to negotiate/climb over... |
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| A very interesting canyon the fern "walls" remind us of the high hedges of an old English garden......and a nice hike.... Another great day in the redwoods area...tomorrow it's the car wash for the truck don't think the californian duster will deal with the layers of dust from today's fun.... More soon, all being well from The Happy Travellers.... |
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