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Redwoods in California

 

On Friday morning we drove to Trees of Mystery, which is situated in the centre of the Redwood National and State Parks. The trail is almost a mile long, through awe-inspiring redwoods. 



We walked along aerial netted suspension bridges through some majestic old growth redwoods with some viewing platforms 100 feet high in the trees. 




Another exciting part of the trail was an 8 minute gondola ride, 1,570 feet up the mountain, giving great views of redwoods and a fine ocean vista at the summit. 



On our journey south to Eureka, along the Pacific Highway, we encountered a lot of misty, foggy weather which is very common on this coast in the mornings but burns off as the day warms up. 


We took a short detour and drove through a 700 year old redwood which had a tunnel cut through it almost 50 years ago. 


We stopped to walk part of the trail at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which consists of many very old redwoods. 


Then it was on to the quirky town of Arcata, which was buzzing with people enjoying the weekly farmer’s market and listening to live music in the main town plaza. 



We spent a couple of nights in Eureka, CA in order to visit some of the Redwood State Parks and drive along the Avenue of the Giants, a 17 mile scenic highway running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California. Many of the trees here are thousands of years old and you could spend hours just walking through the groves and admiring the splendour of these trees. 





We had picnic lunches on a couple of days surrounded by these giant trees. They made one feel very small!



Eureka’s Old Town has many elaborate Victorian houses. 



The next morning we left Eureka in the rain and headed back north to Oregon. 


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