Today I started the drive down the northern California coast. I got later start than normal because I had to unload, clean and reload all of my film holders. It took me about 2 hrs in the morning to reload, so I finally hit the road around 1pm (I was also up late unloading the film holders).

Once I hit the road, I followed the Redwood Highway south. It's been a long time since I have drove through redwood groves and I had forgotten how impressive they are. To me there's something almost magical about them. Perhaps it is because they are so old. The most impressive place to see them in this area is "The Avenue of the Giants", a large preserve of truly old-growth redwoods. Many of the trees in this preserve are thousands of years old. The oldest redwood on the pacific coast was found here, dating back over 2200 years old. Of the many impressive redwoods I saw, most notable were the "Immortal Tree" and "Grandfather Tree."

Immortal Tree is so name because it has survive a loggers axe (not without a scar), fires, lightning which claimed the top 50 or so feet, and the great flood of this area which smothered many other redwoods (one of the very few ways in which you can naturally kill a redwood).

Grandfather tree was so impressive because of its size and age. It's circumference is 55 ft, it's height something like 300+ ft, and it's 1800 years old. It sort of strange and very cool to see (and touch) something alive that almost dates back to the dawn of the Roman empire.

Among the many other redwood curiosities I saw were numerous 'tree' house. Giant living redwoods that were hollowed out and had small houses built into their bases. This apparently doesn't even kill a redwood.

All in all, it's a fairly scenic drive, but not one I could take a lot of pictures on. I would have liked to take a picture or two of a huge redwood, but unless one steps out of the dark forest and into the light it would be too hard.

Trinidad Bay was the one place I did get a picture. There was an area of the bay that was really beautiful and the adjacent property owners were kind enough to let me onto their property to get the picture.

Other than that, I just covered a lot of miles (around 200 today). I'm at the point where highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) meets the ocean, camping on the beach. Hopefully tomorrow will bring good picture opportunities.