Losing Time, Losing My Mind

We have been on the move so much, changing campsites every three or four days, we've just not been able to collect ourselves.  Add to that all the trips we've been taking to see the sights and absorb so much, we've not had much down time or time to chill.  On top of all our travels, we smell like monkeys in a zoo.  So we try to take time to clean out the van and do our laundry when we can.  It's been a bit exhausting of late.

 These tree roots are absolutely amazing.  We took a day and explored our way down the Redwood National and State Park.  It's so hard to get the scale of the trees into a picture, but it was truly impressive to be in such a large forest.  So much to see, so hard to take good pictures.              

               

This one might actually get the scale fairly well.  Bill and G are standing UNDER a fallen tree. Propped by other fallen trees.  Amazing.  Totally recommend hitting this national park.          

Redwood is spread out, so as you drive from one end to the other, you go through coastal towns, like Crescent City.  We stopped at Anchor Way, where we got to look at the ocean.  The weather was so hot at the campsite, and here it was CHILLY.  We all went back to the van to get on some warmer clothes, since we dressed for the heat.         We wanted to see Oregon Caves, the only marble caves in the US.  BUT, the tour fee was high, and K had said that while she was hip to caves this year, it was guided tours she wasn't so fond of.  So with heavy hearts, we bypassed the caves.  On our way back to the campsite, we passed the Cave Junction SmokeJumpers Base Museum, so we turned around and checked it out.  Totally worth it.  We had a great time learning about smokejumpers, hearing some more about the Triple Nickels, and getting first hand history from one of the jumpers who had jumped from Cave Junction.  Cave Junction's base closed in the early '80s, so it was a treat to get to hear from one of the former jumpers.  

J trying on one of the helmets.            

                Our final destination came after mass on Sunday.  We stopped in McD's for a quick lunch, and on our way out, a lady stopped us and asked if we'd been to Stout Grove.  She had seen me carrying the road atlas (we were trying to plan our next destination since we were all planned out by that point), so she wanted to give us some local spots to check out.  Stout Grove is where the Endor forest scenes were shot, along with shots in Jurassic Park and E.T.  You have to go there if you're ever in Crescent City, CA.  Oh my.  Such a beautiful forest.  

We travelled far and wide for this sign.  We went down about five miles on unpaved road that is maybe two cars wide, but only in some places.  We squeezed through gigantic trees, pulled over to let others pass, worried about the soft shoulder and the sheer drop just past it, and just took it slow.  I loved it.  It was a thrilling ride, that I took at 15 mph.        

The kids are pretty much all the same height, especially compared to the trees!  We spent much time imagining that we were on speeder bikes, zooming in and out of trees, looking for the scenes we recognize from the movie.  We had our inner dorks on display, as did everyone in that forest that day!              

The rare picture of me.  But I liked the burl, which is an infection or disease that the tree "eats up" or tries to just cover up.  It's a tree scab.  This one is gigantic, and reminds me of a boogery nose.  So of course I had to get my picture with it!              

NB liked this spore and wanted his picture with it.  We're fascinated by irregular tree growth.                 So out of our three days at Panther Flat campground, we spent three days out and about.  The kids are getting truly road weary, as are Bill and I.  We have to work out how to get in the tour days, but also to get the rest days.  To get in the bookwork, but also the experiential learning.  To just make it past another days, sometimes that's the mission.