A Happy Wanderer!: "From the redwood forests, to the gulf stream waters This Land was made for you and me!"

Yesterday's travels began in Grants Pass, OR. I left there and headed southwest on US 199 to US 101, a route that took me through several redwood forests and along the coast. It was a beautiful drive, and I couldn't resist stopping along the way and taking lots of photos.

Not long after I crossed into California I came to an Agricultural Inspection Station. I had known of this but forgotten about it and was caught off guard. I disclosed that I had one nectarine and some dried mango, which didn't seem to cause any alarm. But with some prompting from the interrogating officer, it came out that I also had some fresh cherries in the car -- I had forgotten to mention them; wasn't trying to conceal anything. I was informed, for future reference, that "cherries are contraband" but allowed to keep my small stash just this once. That's good, because by this time they were one of the few healthy snacks left in the car, and I still had a long way to go!

Pretty soon I came to Redwood National and State Parks -- I gathered that it is actually a series of parks connected together. The first visitor's center I came to was Hiouchi Visitor Center, and I stopped there to gather information for my trip through the forests. The volunteer guide who helped me was very well-informed and gave me some great information about where to stop and what to see given my time limitation. Turns out she and her husband, who are from Florida, volunteer somewhere every summer, and it just happened that they chose Redwood to work at this summer. (I am always interested to know about ways that people find work, whether paid employment or not. This was a program I wasn't aware of.)

Anyway, to make a long story short, here are some of the images I shot in the forest...

(Coast photos will be in a separate post.)