Every year Cory and I have a goal of 100 hikes/year. This year has been hard to keep up with our numbers as life has thrown us some obstacles. We lost both of my remaining grandparents (my dad's parents) to start the year, which meant a trip to Oklahoma. Then I wasn’t feeling totally myself as I had a very large ovarian cyst and needed surgery- but that meant lots of tests over several months before I had the surgery, then time to heal following it. While figuring out what was going on with me we made a month long trip to Missouri and Iowa, for my mom's birthday and Cory’s dad's memorial service. We hiked some on the trip and in Yellowstone and Badlands National Parks, but not as much as we usually do and I wasn’t as up for it anyway with the discomfort I was in.
Now, feeling so much better and really wanting to spend some time outdoors, Cory and I went to the redwoods. It’s such a great place to explore.
Friday: We revisited Trillium Falls Trail and the loop trail at Ladybird Johnson grove. We have hiked these before and enjoyed them so much- this time they were just as wonderful as ever.
Looking up through a hollow tree
Funky fungi
You can just see ocean in the distance- it was more obvious in person.
Saturday: We had a rough start to the day as we had a flat tire when we went to leave our hotel so we had to deal with that first. We walked around Eureka a bit and got lunch at their CO-OP grocery's del while we waited for our car. When we got our car we headed south toward the Humboldt Redwoods State Park- only to find they had not fully aired up our tire! We went back, waited more, had it checked, aired, and left, finally on our way. We hiked the Drury-Chaney Grove this time. We’ve been to the Humboldt Redwoods before, but not this grove and not this trail. It was getting late and the sun had just set when we were done.
Sunday: While driving to find a hike up north and on our way home, we stopped along a beach for a walk. The fog was heavily rolling in but time on the beach is always a good time. We decided to take the scenic drive through Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park along the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. We saw seven male elk resting together and continued on to look for a hike. We ended up stopping at a trail that looked promising and had a great hike through some very large old growth trees. Part of the hike followed a stream and that was beautiful also. We took a few different trails for the hike so I’m not completely sure it has its own name. We started near the Goose Pen tree.
