We spent a very long day driving from Lassen towards Redwood National Park and ended up boondocking in a (crusty old) casino about 20 minutes south of the park in Trinidad. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but at $20 total for three nights, the price was right. There weren’t any hookups, but we had refilled our fresh water and propane on the drive, so we didn’t need any.
We only ended up spending one entire day in the park. The visitor center was located on the Pacific coast which was beautiful. Even in the clouds, that coastline is always spectacular to see.
Redwood National Park isn’t only trees!
After the kids did their obligatory junior ranger badges, we went on up the road to our hike. It was a short just over two mile hike through the forest and past the Big Tree.
Obviously.
The most memorable part of the park for me will be how fun and low key our hike was. Both kids had walkie talkies. They were the secret guards (code names: Night Stalker (for Keali) and Night Shadow (for Caden)) for us (Panther for me and Buck for Scott). They ran ahead, always scouting for “enemies”, and would run back to hide us if they found “enemy” (other hikers) approaching. It was fun, hilarious, and a sweet family memory.
We found time to admire the beauty of the forest as well.
Harmony on so many levels.
Nature is pretty amazing and found a way to use all of the redwoods that were fallen by using them as “nursery logs” to grow new plants. And the size of the trees, even after the sequoias, was shocking.
Our adventure ended up in us spotting a banana slug as we exited the trail.
Banana slugs turn the debris into soil for the next generation of plants.
As we drove out of the park, we spotted a large herd of the elk. We had a quick lesson that the elk of the Redwood National Park are the largest species of elk in North America. Even far away, they were huge, but not big enough to get a quality pic of. At any rate, while the visit was short, it was the first of all the hikes that every one of us was happy, rested, fed, watered, and having fun. Not a single person fussed about a single thing. It was a Christmas Miracle.
By the afternoon, the day had cleared up, so we were able to see this beauty.