Over Spring Break Lyd and I took a trip down the Oregon Coast south into California to see the Redwoods.
We stopped the first night at "Beachside State Park" and camped out. There was a gorgeous sunset:
And Carter got to enjoy playing on the beach - this was the first time he actually enjoyed being anywhere near the ocean. This is really not a bad way to start a vacation.
And this was the view from the front of our campsite.
From there, we woke up the next morning and drove down the Oregon coast. The drive down the coast in Southern Oregon is definitely the most breathtaking road I hav ever been on in my life - every turn was an opportunity to stop and take pictures, we wanted to work our way down the coast - taking our time. We stopped at "The Devil's Punchbowl" - a rocky inlet that the water thrashes around in as the waves come in. There were tons of signs that warned of the danger of falling in - and it was quite obvious, six feet down to the water and rapid, violent swirling.
This is the punchbowl:
And here is all of the wave action I could catch with the camera:
We continued down into California. Farther South in Oregon we past some HUGE sand dunes. These aren't the "protect our dunes" type of things in SC or FL. The dunes were easily 40-50 feet high in places - this photo was taken from the top of one dune, over some trees, looking at another dune.
Here is Lydia at a lookout somewhere along the trip - 90% of our drive was bright and sunny, apparently the only picture I took of Lyd was when it was kinda overcast, though.
This was the view the rest of the time along the road - much brighter and more beautiful:
We worked our way farther South along the coast and into California. When we were passing through the Redwood National and State park, we drove right past a field full of Elk at one point - had to stop and get a picture of that.
We stopped off and went hiking in "Fern Canyon" - a slot canyon that had ferns covering both walls. It was breathtaking and pretty unique - lush greens covering both walls and fallen trees, etc. in the creekbed. The colors of the rocks, the ferns, and the creek itself were amazing.
And here I am climbing around on one of the fallen trees:
And then we get to the Redwoods. They are unreal in their size. Here is a cutaway of one that fell:
Each of these markers shows a specific important historical event - the metal plaques point to a specific ring and shows the year it occured.
This one shows just how old the tree was:
And these show just how big these trees are:
The really amazing thing - this is a Redwood pinecone. That huge tree, comes from this tiny little pinecone.
This was one of the largest trees in the park - the so-called "Avenue of Giants." It is one of the tallest in the park at something like 323 feet tall. The branches don't even start until 190 feet up in the air. Also, isn't Lyd cute.
Sadly, this is the only picture we got together - its at the Devil's Punchbowl. There were tons of other pictures, and many other things we saw, but these were a few of the highlights.
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