3 short hikes around these sacred trees

We rose early to be some of the first to visit the Lady Bird Johnson grove of trees today. This special site was dedicated to Mrs Johnson in 1969 just one year after Redwood National Park was dedicated. She had been there in 1968 to see the trees and was back in 1969 to have the grove dedicated in her name. Anyway it was a spectacular walk, not quite 2 miles. The trees are so awesome. You just feel their energy being near them. They can live up to 2,000 years and the coastal redwoods are the tallest of the redwood species.

After this first walk, we visited the coastal Visitor's Center on the beach near Orick. I watched seals (or sea lions not sure which), pelicans, and shore birds all working together to catch fish at low tide. There were 6 or 7 seals within the 100 yards of beach, maybe 20 pelicans, and at least 60 or 70 shore birds.

On our way back toward our campground, we stopped at "the big tree" and took a short hike to see even bigger trees. We'll go back tomorrow to do a 2 mile hike to see a cathedral of trees. We also stopped at a trailhead and took a hike where a logging road was removed and restored to a trail. There were interpretive signs along the trail explaining the process. The trail was supposed to be a quarter mile, but ended up being just over mile out and back.Read more