Redwoods

Here we are at Redwoods National Park.

It's hard to see in this picture, but this is a set of elk antlers sticking out of a tree truck.  Some time in the past a bull elk got his angers stuck in a tree and died.  The tree grew up around him inclosing his skull and part of his angers.

Look in the bottom right of the picture for a car.  It gives you perspective and scale to the size of these trees.  And the trees in the picture are mostly Ponderosa Pines, not Redwoods.  Redwoods are even bigger.

We took a hike through the Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

Tim, Nathaniel and Chad.

The area must be a hot spot for Bigfoot sitings.  We saw Bigfoot carvings, The Bigfoot Motel and building murals showing the Bigfoot working along side Native Americans.  These forests being so dark and mysterious its easy to see why people would think one exists or one could easily hide without being found.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

After seeing the Redwoods we stopped in the coastal town of Eureka for dinner.  I used my phone to pull up TripAdvisor and searched for their #1 restaurant.  When we arrived we were told that unless we had a reservation we could not get a table till 8 and it was 5:30.  So I searched up Eureka's # 2 restaurant and we headed to the Sea Grill.  We arrived and got seated.  I then realized my mistake, I should have looked at the menu online first.  The prices were starting at $22 a meal and when up to $45!  But, being as that we were already seated and I didn't want to cause a scene, we stayed.  It was shockingly the best seafood I have ever had!

After that wonderful, pricey meal we drove inland to Redding to stay the night.  Maps can be so deceiving. What looked like some mildly curvy roads turned out to be some hair-raising mountain driving - in the dark.  Later on we were told that the mountains we drove over are called the Trinity Alps.  Thinking that was only an nickname I looked it up, and they are really called the Trinity Alps!