Redwood national park

Thanksgiving weekend was close and everybody was asking - what are your thanksgiving plans? As usual, i had none. So last Sunday, 4 days before thanksgiving, i started googling. Somebody had told me about redwood but driving 7 hrs alone earlier seemed like an ordeal. But now that i am going to leave this place soon, i thought that this would be a nice small road trip + time with nature + hiking. I looked at couple of airbnb place for lodge but since it was expensive, i booked the first highly reviewed lodge - curly redwood lodge and then i had the plan.

Redwood national park

Curly redwoods is a big giant redwood forest full of big giant redwood trees. Here are a few trip highlights

~ Crossed avenue of the giants. I was supposed to run a marathon here in May but i bailed out. But now on driving, i realized that it would have been awesome to run here. Very leveled and very beautiful route.

~Videos. With my new phone+camera, i  had began clicking photos but this trip marked the beginning of videos especially moving videos. Will share links below.

~Hiking - Hiked the prarie creek redwood national park. Started with Prarie creek trail, moved to West Rdge trail by Zig zag trail#2, and then turned back to Friendship ridge trail and finally back to trail head from James Irvine trail. Total 13 miles. A very different trail compared to my previous hikes. Most of the trail was covered with fallen leaves or tiny branches, so it was all red in color. Also, it had rained so it was all green and wet. A lot of humidity in air. Since it was not the peak season, for my first 4 hrs of hike, i saw only one person.  Hiking alone clears a lot of concepts in life.

~ Room stay. Spacious room. Since i reached thanksgiving night and it was raining, i stayed at room and watched two episodes of dekalogue - VIII, and X. Watching kieslowski just makes life meaningful!

~ Driving - 7 hrs to and 7 hrs fro. Lots of driving. But it was a scenic route. Plus on the road i had downloaded NPR podcasts - top 50 records of last decade, 100 most memorable songs, Stephen Breyer's lectures, so it was awesome.

~ Hot tub - Stopped at Arcata at Finnish country hot tubs and saunas. Took one hr of hot tub time and relaxed there. The hot tub setting is quite natural. According to yelp, it is one of a kind in US.

~ Small town. Crescent city is a very small town. And so was Arcata, Garberville. It was great to see life in small towns. Very slow, easy and relaxed. No traffic, no queues. Saw even a cyber cafe at Garberville which was very interesting. Also, found a lot of Hippie influence especially at Arcata and Garberville. I had forgotten that california was the classic hippie destination. Saw people hitch hiking rides, clothe styles, stores selling indian gods and other eclectic things.  Mountain view is a suburb but still the city is close, living in a small town would be very interesting. No matter how small a town is, there is a performing arts center with plays/dances, artists touring, there is a downtown, and local cafes.  I wonder how these people see whats happening in this country. I was reminded of Sarah Palin's real America theory.

~Redwoods - They were big, huge giants. They were everywhere.  Good to see that they exist.


Hiking video -


Driving perspective -