An Outdoor Cathedral

How do you describe trees that tower higher than the Statue of Liberty?  And how do you explain the fact that only 2% of these old growth forests remain, while 1.2 million or more acres of these majestic giants have been logged? 

As we walked through the Tall Trees grove in Redwoods National Park, I had to be careful not to trip over my own feet as I gazed upward...trying to see the tops of these beautiful specimens.  Many of them have been around for over 2,000 years, standing as the pillars of an ecosytem that we may likely never fully understand.  Even as they begin to fall, they provide an important resource for new forest growth in the form of "nurse logs."  It truly is as John Muir and others described - a cathedral of sorts, where voices hush and spirits quiet to experience the unique solitude that only such a place can provide.

We spent the day wandering through the Tall Trees grove and trying to gain a sense of scale and wonder of this new place.  It was almost as if you expected to round the corner of the trail and see a dinosaur munching on the ferns taller than Isaac's head...  Everything was bigger - much bigger - than anything we are used to in the East.  Once again, I felt very small.  It gave me a sense of perspective on the universe - and my place in it.

After taking in the trees, we made our way to Fern Canyon - a 50-70 foot deep canyon with its walls covered in many different kinds of ferns.  The vegetation is so dense and the walls are so high, that it feels like you are a fairy walking through walls covered in a rich green carpet.  It was early enough in the season that the foot bridges across the stream had not yet been installed - so we waded through water most of the way up the canyon and back, which only added to the magic for the kids.  As we made our way back to where the trail began, none of us wanted to leave.  It was a magical place...and it would seem that the bull elk grazing at the edge of the stream on our way out agreed.

Tracy