Forest Bathing

When this concept was first presented to me several days ago, I had a lot of fun with it. Not quite as much fun as my dad would have had, but I ran down all the list of literal funnies that were to be had. And then a couple more.  I'm going to let your inferencing skills run wild and not bore you with what I actually said. Ha! 

"Forest bathing" is an actual real term that came out of Japan in the 1980s. Its purpose was to give a respite to the dot.com boom that was sweeping the nation and to give people time to reconnect with nature. It is sort of eco-therapy. The idea has turned trendy as of late as a way to disconnect from ALL the screens, become one with nature, and also as a way to keep forest conservation at the forefront of our minds.  We did a little forest bathing at lunch while we savored our last moments among the giants in a no cell service area. But we learned A LOT about conservation today.

Click on this one - it's a panorama, 

and you'll want to see the whole forest!

We spent the day in the Humboldt Redwoods Park, which is the southern most park that is included in the Redwood National Park "collection". It is also where the Save the Redwoods League was started in 1917 by three conservationists that were asked to take a drive and see what they might see. Since that time, the League has saved/protected over 200,000 acres of redwoods. At that point (1917), the redwoods in old growth forests were being cut down at an alarming rate. The visitor's center had a great display about the history of the area, and posed a rather thoughtful question: 

"What decisions do you think are being made today that we may not fully understand until 150 years from now?" 

Oof. What decisions indeed. This means things that I'm not actually thinking about yet. Much food for thought. 

There was also a section of the visitor's center dedicated to informing and remembering the flood of 1964. We know 1964 as the year of the Alaskan earthquake, and tsunami if you're in Crescent City, but this flood was also very damaging. There were a series of storms over the Christmas season. The river crested at 46 feet where the visitor's center stands now, and obviously did an immense amount of damage.

She's such a good sport. 

Our main adventure was driving the 32 miles of Avenue of the Giants. It's what the founding League conservationists drove, albeit on a dirt rode, all those years ago. 

Cars for scale!! 

One of the groves we passed was the Rockefeller Grove, purchased with money donated from John D Rockefeller, Jr. It is the largest remaining contiguous old-growth coastal redwood forest in the world. So that's pretty special. :) In general the trees in this end of the park are larger than the others we've seen. 

The last grove we visited was actually the first one designated in the Humboldt park. Bolling Grove was named after an aviator killed in WWI, Raynal Bolling. And it is here that Verizon provided us with our forest bath. Even on the side of the road, the forest has a pervasive silence that is so soothing. We had our picnic lunch and soaked in the last of these coastal giants. 

Also, it should be noted that a lack of cell service does not stop one from fooling around with their camera after said forest bath. :)

And then <sigh> we had to leave. When you're not here, you forget. You forget how big they are, forget the footprint they have in these forests, forget how they quiet your soul. And so. We are excited for the rest of our summer adventure, but driving away was hard!