Travels with Kenny

Friday August 6, 2010. Eureka, Calif.

Something else I forgot to mention: On our second day in Yosemite we stopped to take a picture or something and a guy went by riding a mule and leading four pack mules. He looked just like a prospector in one of those old Westerns, but another park employee told us he was bringing supplies to the high country, where the roads don't go. How cool is that?

Today was mostly a driving day. We headed northwest and drove through Humbolt Redwood State Park on the Avenue of the Giants. This road winds its way through one of the last remaining stands of old growth redwoods. The trees are huge and the forest is dark and damp. Very impressive. Some interesting facts (as well as I can remember them): The trees we refer to as sequoias and those we call redwoods are both related types of sequoias. The redwood is the world's tallest tree; the tallest resides in Redwood NP at 379 feet. The sequoia is the world's largest living thing by mass. The trunks are immense--much bigger around than the redwoods. A mature sequoia, i.e., a tree about 2000 years old, can have bark almost 3 feet thick. But they're nowhere as tall as redwoods. In fact, many of them look as if their tops were cut off. That's because they experience many fires over the centuries, and the fires damage the trees enough so that they have trouble delivering water to their tops. Hence, the tops die. But the trees don't; they keep growing thicker and thicker. Anyway, if you see the giant sequoias first, as we did, the redwoods don't come across as spectacularly as they could. I think that's because you can't see how tall they are. You'd literally have to lie on your back to look that high up. My neck still hurts.

After that we drove to Eureka, where we're spending the night. We were surprised at the size of Eureka and all the traffic, as we're used to staying in very small, empty places. When the sun is out--it wasn't today, it was very cloudy, cold and damp--Eureka is probably very picturesque. There's a historic downtown with old Victorian buildings, a working fishing fleet, trendy shops, etc. On the other hand, the parts of town that surround the historic area seem drab and rundown. In the sunshine it probably looks a lot better. Maybe tomorrow, when we head north to Redwood NP.