Prairie Creek Redwoods

Back in the 1920's, when people started to become aware of the rate at which the old-growth redwoods were being cut down, organizations like the Save the Redwoods League started buying forest land and working with the state to preserve these forests.  Three state parks combined to preserve about half of the remaining virgin forest.  We visited Jedediah Smith the other day, today we visited Prairie Creek and walked up a road you can normally drive on, but was closed to cars today. We were glad to walk it and saw only one group of three hikers in the couple hours we were walking.

Of the original 2 million acres of coast redwoods, only about 115,000 acres remain.  The battles over these forests even raged into the 90's when people chained themselves to trees to save them and one protester was killed when the loggers started felling trees in their direction.  Walking through the sections of these forests that are preserved brings out the Druid in me and makes me totally understand the passion of the people who tried to save them.  The quiet is heavy and a bit eerie.  Time seems to literally be suspended and Lynnae and I frequently would split up and one would wait five minutes before walking back so we could experience the forest alone.  We have another week around Redwood country and will undoubtedly keep walking in them when we can.

We also took a drive (up another dirt road) to the Lady Bird Johnson grove and up into the grassy hills above the canyons where the redwoods grow.  It was weird to rise above the fog and into the warm sunlight and golden hills.  Lynnae spied an old truck rotting by the side of the road and we stopped to have a look.