Oregon Trip 2015 - Day 2 - Redwoods

Tuesday - August 4th
After spending the night in Medford, OR, we checked out of our hotel and made a quick stop at the Medford Temple before heading to Crescent City, CA to check out the Redwoods and cross a big "to-do" off my bucket list.  Medford was really smokey because of a bunch of big fires in the area.  The sky was really murky with smoke the whole time we were there!

While at the Medford Temple, there may or may not have been a discussion on whether or not to eat all of the Pink Lady apples because of the uncertainty of the apples being confiscated by the border patrol as we entered California ;)
Luckily the Pink Lady apples were safe and made it through the border, but we had a yummy snack of the fruit we knew wouldn't be allowed in.

When we got to the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park our first stop was at the Visitor's Center.  I was amazed at the size and weight of some of the pine cones they had on display!

We watched a short movie, mapped out the things we wanted to see, and got the girls each a souvenir and a couple of books to add to our collection.
Aurora LOVES her new coyote!

Savannah got a little owl finger puppet (she's holding it in her left hand), and I thought it was cute that she kept pretending to direct music at the information stands :)

Our cuties checking out a tiny bug on a little flower while we waited for Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa

Next, we grabbed a little lunch from a gas station and headed to a grove of trees for a picnic lunch in the Redwoods.  I was in heaven!


We were all in awe of the beauty and size of some of the trees.  One cool thing about Redwoods is that they tend to grow in "families" and multiple trees can grow into one big tree.  This is Dar and the girls next to three trees that grew together and became one.

After lunch, we headed to our first hike along a short trail called The Simpson-Reed Trail (a good one for families with little kids).  Savannah fell asleep on the way, and Grandpa wanted a nap too so he generously stayed with Savannah while the rest of us went exploring.
This is Rori standing next to a Redwood tree that toppled over right next to the parking lot and left the roots exposed.  Surprisingly, Redwood roots don't go very deep into the ground, but they do spread out and intertwine with other trees around them.  Obviously, some of them tend to fall over when conditions are right.

We learned at the Visitor's Center that banana slugs are really good for the Redwood trees, so we made it a game to try and spot one.  Sure enough, we found one on our first hike!  Someone passing us on the trail commented that this was a small banana slug!  Either way, we were glad to see one :)

I think the grove was more of a playground than a nature hike for Daddy and Aurora.  Daddy climbed on top of this fallen tree and we put Rori up with him, but she didn't appreciate being up high.  I guess we're not very nice parents sometimes.  Sorry, sweet girl!

Silly kid!

Daddy and Rori looking down a hollowed out tree.  I took a picture of their faces from the other side too, but it didn't turn out very well :(

Another hollowed out tree, still standing, and perfect for a natural shower ;)

We thought the ripples in the bark looked pretty cool and wondered if it ripples like that over time because of the weight of the tree--we're not really sure though.

Aurora loved being in the forest and kept asking us to take her picture. She's a cutie!

Trying to reach all the way around a big one :)

Us, minus sleeping Savy

Not quite as cool as riding a horse, but it works!

Wet mushrooms growing on the side of a tree

A tall, dead tree, still standing.

Looking straight up a super tall tree.

Pictures just don't do justice, but the trees are amazing and beautiful!

As I said, I was in heaven being in the Redwood forest. I couldn't help but admire their majesty!

Redwoods are also cool because sometimes they grow on top of another tree that has fallen and the roots of the living tree just grow around the dead tree.  Eventually the dead tree decays and the roots become extended over the dead tree/ground.


This one is a move obvious example.  It's so crazy to me that they can grow like that!

A random bench. They thought it was funny that there was a weird hole between them and Aurora said it was for holding hands :)

Sliding off!

Another cool thing about Redwoods is that some of them grow what's called a burl that houses other small plants like ferns and things high up on the tree.

Me and my Rori

Being silly and hiding her face

She takes after her dad because he's a pretty silly guy.  His mom and I couldn't stop laughing at him climbing one of the trees to sit on a burl.  It was pretty high up!  I was nervous about him falling.



Monkey-see, monkey do.  Rori wanted to climb up to be with him.  Sillies.

More climbing on big trees!

Then we found a big tree with burls that looked kind of like tortoise shells.  They were much lower to the ground.

Aurora thought this root was cool because it was curly like her hair :)

We found a little "Grinch" tree.  It was covered in green moss and reminded us of the Grinch.

Darwin standing by the roots of another huge, toppled tree.

Me, Rori and Grandma by the same tree.

Posing for another picture requested by our little cutie.

When we got back to the car, Savy was still snoozing away!  Sweet, tired thing!

After this hike we drove to Stout Grove for another short hike.  It is said that this is where Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was filmed, the planet with the Ewoks and the Storm Trooper "bikes" flying through the trees.  As soon as we got out of the car we saw a Stellar's jay!

 We decided to wake Savannah up and bring her along on this hike because we didn't want her to sleep through the Redwoods and miss it entirely!  I was glad we woke her up, even if she was a little grumpy for a while.

Can you tell Savy was still tired? ;)

 This grove was dedicated to Frank Deming Stout.  Darwin's great-grandfather is Franklin Deming, but we're not really related, however it was fun to see our name!

 Tuckered out and needing a piggy-back-ride.

Grandma between a couple really big trees!

Savannah kept making us laugh with her tired-grumpiness :)

Believe it or not, she really was enjoying herself.

Reaching high to touch a tree.

Hi, Grandpa!

A beautiful landscape!

 Hiking back up from the Jedediah Smith river.  There is a wooden bridge you can cross to the campground on the other side.

Our little family :)

We found a perfect bench for Aurora!

Grandpa was nearly eaten by a Graboid!! (Tremors, anyone?)

I wonder how many people it would take to reach all the way around it...

A panoramic shot of the tree we were trying to reach around

Darwin's parents standing next to a tree that started out as three and grew together.

A big burl growing close to the ground

Savy found a rock and it made her a happy girl!

Look at those strong girls picking up that tree! ;)

Aurora spotted this banana slug inside a little crevice of a tree.  Way to spot 'em, Rori!

Savy holding hands with Grandma :)

A better shot of our family all together.

We thought this tree looked a little like a chicken with it's wings spread out.  Aurora thought it was pretty cool.

Grandma and Rori hid in this tree ahead of everyone on the trail and tried to scare us :)  Savy wasn't scared but wanted to join them.

Gotta love Shakespeare!

On the drive out we had to drive between some trees that were really close to the side of the road.  Darwin had his parents take this picture of us because we thought we were barely squeezing through these two trees as we drove through.  We laughed a little after we saw the picture and realized how much space we really had. It felt like the trees were super close to us!  Haha!  But you couldn't get two cars through there at the same time, that's for sure!

We drove straight to our hotel in Crescent City, CA and then headed to dinner at Denny's.  Savannah made everyone laugh when she got sick of dipping her veggies in ranch and decided to just drink it instead.  Silly girl!


After dinner we drove a few blocks further west to get our first good view of the ocean.

It made us excited to drive up the beach house the next day!

That was it for our first day at the Redwoods--plus the battery on our camera died so we couldn't take any more pictures that day, haha!