I walked out to the Crescent City Lighthouse. The lighthouse is on a small island that is only reachable when the tide is low; otherwise, the path is under water. The lighthouse is decomissioned, and is owned by a historical society now. The sign says it is a private residence.
I met a couple from Portland who is living in the lighthouse for a month. They were leaving to go grocery shopping when I met them, and commented that they could stay in town for dinner tonight because the path to the lighthouse wouldn't be under water until around 7 pm tonight. I asked how they got the lighthouse gig, but they didn't give me a straight answer.
After walking around the lighthouse, I drove to the Hiouchi Ranger Station and showed the ranger a list of hikes I am interested in taking. He had me open the NPS app and download the park map. The map has been very helpful because it has all the Redwood National Park trails, and my phone's GPS shows my location while I am hiking!
He suggested that I start with the Stout Grove and Grove of Titans trails, so that is what I did this afternoon. Needless to say, the redwoods are tall and beautiful.
Not only are they tall, but many of them have a huge circumference. The bottom of this fallen tree is about 15 feet in diameter... more than twice my height!
The area is actually a rainforest. Whenever I reached out and touched the trunk of a redwood tree, the wood felt moist.
Moss is draped over a lot of the trees.
Below is a fallen redwood covered with moss.
The fallen tree in the photo below has become a nurse log for several trees growing out of its decaying trunk.
Check out the huge burls at the bottom of this redwood tree. It looks like there used to be another trunk growing out of the right side, but it burned or broke away.
The majority of the redwoods are just straight and tall. The trails are well maintained. In sensitive areas, the trail is raised on metal grates to protect the tree roots and help keep thousands of hikers' footprints from compressing the forest floor.
Here are a few more photos I took.
The following tree is probably the most massive tree I saw today. It would take at least a half dozen adults with outstretched arms to surround this tree.
I look forward to doing more hiking tomorrow. I plan to spend the night tonight in the Safeway parking lot in Crescent City. If that doesn't work, I'll find somewhere else.
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