Big Basin and Santa Cruz - 8/8/2016

As mentioned in our last blog post, we are now set up at an RV park in Redwood City, CA.  On Saturday and Sunday we took it easy, did a little shopping, visited local places and spent a lot of time catching up with our son David who we haven't seen in a while.  However, on Monday we headed up to the Skyline Boulevard (Cal 35) which runs along the crest of the Santa Cruz mountains that separate the Pacific coast from the Silicon Valley.  From overlooks on a clear day you can see San Francisco Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.  Today it was hazy so we didn't get a chance for that view.  Here is a view into Silicon Valley.  The mountains in the hazy distance are on the other side of the bay.

And here is a group of amateur artists trying to capture the scene.

We drove a section of the boulevard and then headed west towards Santa Cruz but first we made a stop in Big Basin Redwood State Park.  Big Basin, founded in 1902, is California's oldest state park and contains the largest continuous stand of old growth redwoods south of San Francisco.  These are coastal redwoods which are the tallest living organisms in the world reaching a height of 375 ft. and living for 1,000 to 2,000 years.  Here is a photo of a slice of a tree that was cut down in 1936.

At the time is was cut down it was 1,392 years old.  It was almost 1,000 years old at the time that Columbus discovered America.  Pat's knee was still bothering her so we only walked a short loop trail thru the park and here is the beginning of the trial.

These trees are very resilient and survive forest fires due to their very thick and insulating bark.  However, occasionally the fire does get thru the bark and starts burning the heart wood in the center of the tree.  This does not kill the tree as it is the layer right under the bark that the tree needs,  So you see examples like this of trees with the center burned but the tree still growing.

Here is an extreme example where the fire has burned completely thru the center and you can see straight up the center of the tree.  The tree is alive and still growing.

Redwoods sometimes grow burls when they are damaged or stressed.  The burls are basically buds from which new trees can sprout and sometimes they can get very large.  Here is an example of one.

As mentioned earlier coastal redwoods are the tallest living organisms but it is hard to convey how tall they are but here is a photo that might give you some idea of how tall they are.

This photo is of Pat and I in front of the "Father Tree".  It is the oldest and largest tree in the park.  It is 16' 10" in diameter at breast height, 66' 9" in diameter at the base and 250 ft. tall.

And this photo is of the "Mother Tree".  It is the tallest in the park.  At one point it was 329 ft. tall but lost part of its top in a storm and is now "only" 293 ft. tall but it is still growing and will eventually be once again over 300 ft. tall.

We had lunch under the redwoods and then continued on our way west to Santa Cruz.  Here is a photo of the light house at Santa Cruz.  It currently serves as a surfing museum.  This is where surfing on the US mainland began.  The story is that a Hawaiian prince who was attending college in the area had one of the wood working shops make him a surf board and he taught the locals how to surf.

And appropriately here is a guy riding the small surf that was forming around the base of the light house.

Off shore there were kelp beds and you can see a young lady out there working her way thru the kelp.

Just south of where we were is the Santa Cruz pier and here is a photo.

One of the sea creatures that lives among the kelp beds is the sea otter and here you can see a photo of one floating on his back and eating something.  The sea gull is hoping he will drop something.

Here is another photo of the sea otter.  He would dive down, find something to eat and then come up to the surface and eat it.  One of the enemies of the kelp is sea urchins and sea otters eat sea urchins.

Also in the area were seals and lots of birds and here they are basking in the sun.

Very pretty coast with sections of sandy beaches interspersed with rocking outcroppings.

Here is an example of a natural bridge that has been carved by the action of the waves.

More seals ant birds.  You can tell which side of the rock is for the birds and which is for the seals.

Lots of birds decorating the rocks with their droppings.

Here is a cormorant drying his wings.  Cormorants do not have waterproof feathers and so they get wet and have to periodically stop and allow their feathers to dry.

Here is a little mini beach.

Just south of the Santa Cruz pier is an amusement park.  Not very large but here is a photo.

We had dinner out on the pier.  After dinner we walked out to the end of the pier and found openings cut in the surface of the pier so you could look at what was going on under the pier.  There were a number of seals resting on the pier supports and I shot a short video of the action under the pier.

And here is a photo down the length of the pier with the Santa Cruz mountains in the background.

After this we drove back to Redwood City and a good night's sleep.