A quick morning wrestle and snuggle before breakfast and heading back to windy Route 1 up the coast of California.

We stopped in Fort Bragg at noon for some lunch and time at the park. 

Route 1: beautiful views and more twisty turny road.

an RV made out of a log

Redwood State Park.  In the above middle picture the tree fell in 2006 and had started growing in 912 A.D.  The picture on the right is of an RV made out of a log.  A gentleman rode around America trying to save the Redwoods by showing people how amazingly large they are. The back of the RV is just one gigantic log. We also learned at the visitor’s center watching a National Geographic video called “Climbing the Redwoods” that the fog along the coast is responsible for about half of the water the redwoods use to thrive.

Redwood Visitor’s Center making paw prints.

 The view above our tent.

Cody making submarines with really long periscopes.

Brooke’s can of rocks.

Brooke sat up in this little nook with her notebook and wrote about the rocks and trees.

We learned that blue paint on a tree meant it was marked to be cut down.  We camped in a second growth redwood forest.  The first trees had been mostly removed by a logging company.  Amazingly, baby trees grew up in rings around the original trees.  The remnants of the original trees were popular climbing spots for the kids in the campground.

Scott and Brooke headed to the river to splash around while Cody said he wanted to ride his bike while I jogged around the campground.  Cody made it one lap and then decided he was too tired to bike, so since I had already committed to the jog I just kept running up and down our little camp block and around our campsite for a half hour.  While at the river Brooke collected quite a few new rocks for her Pringle’s can of rocks.

Scott took this picture while on his hike with Brooke.  The knobby bulges or burls on the redwoods can weigh up to several tons.  The burls grown near ground level and about 100ft above the ground.  The burls hold hundreds of cloned dormant buds which will sprout into new saplings if the tree is put under too much stress from fires, injury or falling over.

The campground was very friendly last night.  Kids were biking and hiking from tree to tree exploring and making friendships.  While the campground was active until late, it was a low level family friendly atmosphere that lulled everyone to sleep.