I love the ocean, I love big trees. Today I had both. The coast redwood is the tallest living tree. It can grow to nearly 370 feet. Only 4% of the Coast Redwoods remain in forests in southern Oregon and northern California. The giant Sequoias that we saw a couple years ago can grow to a diameter of over 40 feet but are not as tall - up to 311 feet. Coast Redwoods are slimmer at a diameter of 22 feet. We certainly saw some big ones today. It was just funny to see so many people walking around staring up and trying to take pictures of something so tall.
We went to the southern section of the park and drove another scenic parkway through a corridor of huge trees. We stopped several times just to get up close to the trees to really appreciate the awesome size. At Big Tree Wayside we saw one that was 304' tall with a 21' diameter. Wow! There were many other biggies in the old growth grove. We stopped at two Visitor Centers as we usually do to get more information about the park. Kuchel Visitor Center is right on the ocean which was NOT fogged in today so we spent some time enjoying the waves and the brown pelicans. The ocean floor was much steeper here so the waves were coming in with some big booms.
There were many warning signs about "sneaker waves" which are much larger than the usual waves and can grab you off your feet even if you are standing on dry beach. Four people have died at that beach since 2004 due to these waves. We were told to never turn our backs on the waves. We looked for the sneaker waves but didn't see one. Our afternoon was spent driving up Bald Hills Road 3000 feet into the foothills above the park. It was a steep drive (15% grade) at times, but brought us to some beautiful old growth groves as well as into some high prairie areas with views of the ocean and the forests on the hills.
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