California/Oregon 5/12/08

This morning we headed up the coast of California to the Redwoods National and State Parks. We did a few hikes and were amazed at the size of the redwoods. We even got to walk through a few of the big trees. On our travels we have enjoyed the deserts and the Pacific coast but I can’t tell you the feeling I had when we hiked into the forest. My husband describes it as a feeling of “ahhhhhhhhhh.” I guess I am more of a forest person than I really thought. Even though we are on the west coast and the trees are much bigger and more different, I loved the forest. I loved hiking in the forest and seeing the trees, the wildflowers, and just the general feeling of being in a forest. It made me think of the Smokies (which I love!). I believe that we hiked a total of 6 miles today which is the most we have done in a week so I really enjoyed that too.

Then we crossed the border into Oregon and the scenery was beautiful there too. I was surprised to see snow on the mountain tops. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Oregon Caves National Monument even though we heard they stop giving tours at 4pm. We drove into the parking lot at 3:58 and I saw a ranger who told me the next tour would be at 10am tomorrow. Since I get up at 5am and we usually are on the road by 7am, I knew that we wouldn’t get to see the caves so I was kind of disappointed. Then, the wonderful ranger offered to take us into the caves to see the first two rooms as a sneak preview. It was wonderful! It reminded me a lot of Mammoth Cave, only smaller and more active.

We finally arrived in Grants Pass, OR for the night. Hopefully tomorrow we will head for Crater Lake since the weather is so beautiful. When we arrived here, it was 65 degrees which seemed warmer than we expected. Oregon Caves still has snow all around. It is hard for me to imagine snow in May.