Summer Road Trip: Avenue of the Giants

I love trees.

I was raised on a tree nursery literally surrounded by millions of trees.  I spent my childhood playing, climbing, and running among them and my teenage summers working among them.  I have loved traveling all over the world and noticing the different trees at each location.  Whenever I drive to the beaches north of San Francisco, I make sure to roll my windows down so I can smell the eucalyptus forests along the coastline.  Even though I have visited Muir Woods several times, I have lived in the Bay Area for over four years now and had never visited the famous redwood forests up in Humbolt County.  I was so excited when Dallas agreed to extend our family road trip for our first visit!

Avenue of Giants

 Like I mentioned in the previous posts, the drive from Crescent City to the Avenue of Giants was absolutely gorgeous, but when we finally pulled off of HWY101 it was like entering an entirely different world.  We immediately felt tiny and overwhelmed by the age and size of the forest surrounding us.

The Avenue of Giants is a scenic highway that runs for about 31 miles parallel to HWY101.  We entered by the northern entrance right after the small town of Fortuna.  It holds around 51,222 acres of redwood groves.

 Daxton, once again, was an angel baby.

He woke up to eat right as we arrived in the redwoods.  After his belly was full, he was extremely cooperative for the camera.  We were able to spend a good hour or so hiking among the trees taking pictures.  We kept saying how much fun it will be to bring him back when he can walk, run, and climb the trees on his own as well.  We have so many plans!

We loved watching Daxton react to everything.  It's fun to see him feel things for the first time, like the dirt between his toes and the bark on his fingertips.  It was so neat to see his eyes light up as he watched the light cut through the branches and tops of the trees.  The teacher in me can't wait to introduce him to the world and all of it's amazing things.

 It's amazing all the different formations, crevices, cracks, and wholes we found in some of the trees.  No, Dallas was not really going to through our little man down one of them!

 I love the pictures below.

Not only does Dallas look adorable holding little Daxton in our baby carrier, but the comparison in size between them and the trees is pretty awesome.

 

It's amazing to me to think that these trees can live 1200-1800 years or more.  They are the tallest trees on earth, reaching up to over 379 feet with a diameter of 26 feet!  Once commercial logging began in the 1850s almost 95% of the population of old-growth redwood forest was cut down for construction use.  

 

 It's incredible to think about what each of these trees have seen over the hundreds of years they've been living.  It quickly puts our short time on this earth into perspective and gives us more of a reason to truly live each day to the fullest.

Which is why I'm going to LOVE snuggling with my little perfect boy tonight and for as long as he'll let me!

One VERY tired boy after exploring the redwoods.

 Images I took via Instagram...