Byer Family: Redwood National Park

Before we start day two of Redwood National Park, I have a story for you all! You may be wondering, what do Patrick and I do with all of our time in the car driving? Well, we've written lots of thank you notes, listened to a book on CD, of course we listen to music, go a little crazy, and (dun, dun, dun… are you ready for the big announcement?) PATRICK SANG THE ENTIRE SONG OF NINETY NINE BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL! Yep, that's right folks, he sang the whole song! I am so proud of my dear husband!

On to day 2! We woke up and sped down the road to Kuchel Visitor Center in the Park to arrive by 9am (ok, we didn't actually speed down there), but we wanted to be there bright and early to get a permit to Tall Trees Access Road. It's free, but they only give out 50 permits a day to check out the tallest Redwood trees in the Park. We got our permit and then walked out to the beach behind the visitors' center. It was beautiful, with the waves crashing against the foggy beach! After spending a little while wandering the beach area, we drove to Bald Hills Road and did a short hike slightly off the road before heading further up to the Tall Trees Access Road. Once we got to the end of the road, we ate some lunch. Then, we set off on our 4 mile hike. It was a neat trail with some extremely tall trees (although, they didn't seem as large around). We stopped off at the creek towards the end of the trail and rested, skipping some rocks and hanging out.

After hiking back to our car, we drove to Fern Canyon, which was a bit of a rough drive, and Gold Bluffs Beach. I've never seen anything like Fern Canyon. The pictures can explain it better than I can. We stopped on a section of Gold Bluffs beach that was deserted by anyone but us. It was such a cool experience. We took a lot of pictures and just enjoyed the waves. Both of these are technically in a state park and require a small fee to enter the park, but if you have an annual national park pass, it is free. We ended the day with one final scenic tour (where we stopped and took a picture at "Big Tree") before heading back to our campground for the night. Big Tree is 304 feet tall and 68 feet in circumference. That's BIG!

Alright, I have one more story for you. My husband is forcing me to post it. When we were at the lighthouse on our first day at Redwood, we were walking back across some rocks towards our car. I saw a small group of people taking pictures of something. Immediately I thought it was something of interest, so I asked Patrick what they were looking at. Then I said, "Oh my gosh, I think it's a seal. Oh wait, I think it's a bird. Uh, actually… it's a rock." He thinks this is a mighty funny story that must be shared. He says that this sums up my "geniusness." Well, I did make it through grad school… it's just that my common sense is sometimes lacking. Haha!