Summer 2007 Road Trip: Day 2

Day 2


The second day of the Summer 2007 Road Trip was spent mostly in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of the tallest trees on planet Earth, the California Redwood.

After arriving in beautiful Sunnyvale, CA on Day 1 after a five hour drive from Santa Barbara, CA and checking in at The Maple Tree Inn (one of the few places that was in the right location that was pet-friendly) we woke up at the crack of noon and drove up into the hills above Santa Cruz for about 90 minutes on a very winding road to reach Big Basin Redwoods State Park, home of some of the tallest and oldest living organisms in the planet: the California Redwood. As one enters the park, here is the very first tree one sees.

Right next to the office where one pays ones park fees is a cross-section of a redwood showing the numerous growth rings of a very old sempervirens (literally "long living") tree.

Here's a close-up showing the details of the metal plaques showing dates that the tree had lived through to put its amazing longevity into human perspective.

And here's the close-up of the plaque next to the growth rings.
Unfortunately almost all of the trails in Big Basin Redwoods state Park (and other parks) do not allow dogs, so after we had a lovely picnic (severely attacked by vicious yellowjacket/hornets) we set off for a walk on one of the paths we could take the dog.
On the way back we stopped at a "turn out" to get a view of the forest from one of the high points in the Santa Cruz mountains.