Have you ever checked into a hotel room and it's already taken????? I mean, quite a few things have happened to us in our travels, but this is a first! Good grief! Luckily we didn't bust into the room and make brand new friends. The door was ajar, and that slowed our roll. Our second room, was room 307, but was on the 2nd floor.... So obviously they have some kinks to work out! Ha!
We spent another day admiring big trees. :) After coffee we headed back to Jedidiah State Park to find the Stout Grove. Here's a fun fact about the Redwood's National Park: the park is actually three California State Parks that are sort of co-managed with NPS. Jedidiah Smith is one of those parks, the other two being Del Norte Coast and Prairie Creek.
The drive from Crescent City on Howland Hill Road is only about 7 miles, but it's unpaved, and has many twists and turns. It's a treat to drive, and there's so much to see! We've driven this road three times this trip, and would do it again! (Click below to watch part of it in time-lapse).
Today took us to Stout Grove. It's relatively close to the grove we were in yesterday, but so different! The Simpson-Reed Grove was nestled in a jungle! So many plants, and barely a path to walk down. The Stout Grove today had more Redwoods, and also a bare forest floor in places. There were still ferns and other plants, but not nearly as dense as the other grove.
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| I have a thousand of these pictures; I can't get enough of this view. |
Sometimes I'm the tech nerd in the family, but not today! The first tech tip of today is about plant identification. Did you know you can use your iPhone? As I hardly ever think about plants, I did not! From your photo, once you tap information, you might have a plant ID option if your picture is good enough!
How cool is that? Mom totally knew what this was (wood sorrel), but we used it to track down another plant later in the day. (We think it might be a Tanoak...) Who knew?
The second tech tip is about Merlin. Yeah -- it's not about the wizard. I'd be totally into that! This is a bird identification app, and it's SO cool! When you hear a bird you want to ID, you whip out your app, and record the call! The app listens, records, and makes a suggestion based on what it heard. We identified an osprey yesterday and a Wilson's Warbler today. If you love birds, check it out!
We could have stayed here all day. ❤
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| Maybe my favorite photo today! |
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| Life-sized ferns OR Smurf sized mom? ;) |
Our last stop was the Prairie Creek Park, with a stop at Big Tree. I kid you not, that is its name. And lo and behold, it's big! It's actually not the tallest tree we saw (by about 100 a feet?), but it's most definitely the widest. It has a circumference of almost 75 feet and is estimated to be about 1500 years old. Whew!
And then we said goodbye to the burgeoning herds of mosquitos and went in search of dinner. Tomorrow we'll take one last swing through the trees before our journey continues south.
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