Camping in the Redwoods.

(See, I TOLD you I had some more posts ready!) 

So, we’re at Thursday, August 11th and I am leaving San Fransisco (I just wanted to put that in there in case this timeline and eight month delay has gotten confusing for anyone). I drove North toward the Redwoods. Now, there are a few different national parks where one can observe Redwood forests. One is Redwood State and National parks (duh) and one is Sequoia National Park. Apparently, Sequoia National Park is more impressive because that’s where the really wide trees are. Apparently the Redwood National Park has tall trees that are also wide but not as astonishingly wide. The internet seemed to think that if you’re only going to see one, you should head toward Sequoia. Well that’s cool and all internet, but Sequoia national park wasn’t on my way. At all. So Redwood National Park it was. 

Along the way I passed an advertisement for a drive through tree. So I went. I paid five dollars to go down a twisty road and drive my car through a tree but then I wimped out and panicked because I wasn’t sure my car would fit, so I turned off and parked my car on the side. Let’s take a moment here to appreciate the fact that I drive a sub-compact car, and if any car was ever going to fit, it was probably mine. But again, panic. Then I walked through the tree. The hole in it was wide enough that I couldn’t touch both sides with my arms extended. I checked later and determined that I can do that in my car, so my car would have fit. Of course. Damnit. 

Anywhoo, you can take highway 101 all the way up through and see some pretty incredible trees, but there’s also this scenic detour you can take and I figured, “What the hell, the whole point of the rest of this day is to see Redwoods. Might as well detour!” And so I did. The road was winding and slow moving but it was so, so beautiful. The trees were ginormous! I was driving through it in the late evening and the sunlight was barely making it through between the trees at that point. Pictures really didn’t do it justice, especially since I didn’t couldn’t get a human in with it for perspective. 

I camped out that night at Elk Prairie Campground in Redwoods State Park. It was pretty lovely and there were a zillion huge ferns all around my camp site. I kind of wanted to make friends with some people at the camp ground (like the dude I could hear playing guitar for his friends) but ultimately was too much of a chicken. Oh well. It was still lovely.


In the morning I went exploring to a part of the park called "Fern Canyon" and I will say that while it was cool and very pretty, there was no place that looked like a canyon with walls completely covered in ferns. I was disappointed, not gonna lie. But I did climb up in a huge redwood tree and self time a photo that I later used on my Christmas card, so it wasn't a total loss, I guess.

After that I hit the road for Oregon and left California in the dust.