Sara Withrow

This was our first stop today. We left the house around 7:30 this morning after eating a delish breakfast prepared by Cory.
It was a 58 minute drive, crossing the boarder, going through Crescent City, then turning onto Howland Hill Road. This narrow, mostly one lane, dirtish road is beautiful early in the morning! By mid morning, it's stressful with all the people.
Our first hike was nothing short of amazing! And tough for Cory and I, as we aren't hikers. Thank goodness I pulled the trigger on hiking poles. Those things are a huge help, and later in the day, on our subsequent hikes, I regretted leaving them in the car.
The fog and mist made these ancient trees even more magical. Honestly, this was perfect weather.

It was so peaceful! No modern sounds. No traffic, no airplanes, just nature. I believe we heard elk calls, lots of birds, and Ravens too. We saw snails, squirrels and banana slugs.

This hike was just shy of 6 miles round trip. It took us 2.5 hours to go to the end of the trail because we were stopping to stare at the trees and take pictures, shed layers as it warmed up, and just enjoyed the journey. It took us an hour to get back to the car.

Boy Scout Tree (I will caption that photo, and it will be on the second photo dump for this trail) is about 240 feet tall and 23 feet in diameter. It's estimated to be about 2,500 years old! To be honest, all the trees were just as amazing as Boy Scout.

We went to the end of the trail and saw Fern Falls. It was a cute place to sit and eat a snack and drink some water.

Jose gave Caleb a disposable camera with the rule that he needs to get pictures of all three of us together. This has been a fun task! Today we met a young woman who solo travels 2 weeks a year. She walked with us a bit. Yesterday we met some people who also were headed to the redwoods and we compared notes. We have had people laugh, and one who jeeded help using this relic of the 1900's. Jose gave Caleb such a thoughtful and creative gift. I can't wait to see these get developed.

Loved this hike, and glad we got there early. This was the least populated stop of the day. I doubt this trail gets too busy due to the length.
There will be a Boy Scout #2 post that is just pictures.En savoir plus