Exploring the Redwoods

Please ignore the fact that the events featured in this post occurred in June. Better late than never, right?

Part of our super-cool summer vacation included spending a week on the California/Oregon coast where the redwood forest met the ocean. Just outside of Crescent City. This is probably one of my favorite places in the country. We have tramped all over it and have never been a better environment- cool, not hot or freezing; damp, not sticky humid or desert dry; green, grass covered ground, not tangled underbrush or layers of dirt; close enough to the beach to visit often, but not constantly barrelled by wind or seabirds; pests consisted of mosquitoes, daddy long legs spiders, and banana slugs, not fist-sized roaches, fire ants, or any of the 500 varieties of insects that thrive in our backyard; and of course you can't beat the view.

I loved the campground that my sister picked. First, it was clean. Not just litter-free but dirt and mud-free as well. The paths were covered in gravel or pine needles, the ground everywhere else was growing grass and clover. No layers of dirt tracked into tents and sleeping bags, blown into food, or coating children's faces and hands. Running water and hot showers are of course a bones as well. Finally, they tried hard to keep a wilderness feel to things. They left trees and undergrowth intact as much as possible so each site was insulated from the others, giving privacy and the illusion of wilderness camping. The campground was crossed by trails leading through redwood trees, fallen logs, giant tree stumps, fern groves, and creek beds. Perfect for some down-time exploring.

Showing off the balance skills. Andrew insisted on wearing this reflective belt all the time. I think he was afraid of getting lost (on a side note, I only lost each kid once, and they were promptly returned to me by helpful staff members since by the end of the week the entire camp knew where the tribe of blue-eyed blond kids belonged).

King of the mountain, I mean stump.

A million things to climb, jump off, hide behind, slide down, or run around. Nature's playground!

Not many places you can go that have tree stumps taller than you and wider than your bedroom. What I want to know is who cut down the tree in the first place? What were they thinking?

The closest I could get to a group shot. They never stop moving!

They all fell into the heffalump trap!

Or maybe they just climbed in through this tunnel.

Or squeezed in through this rabbit hole.

These guys were everywhere. A few of the kids wanted to adopt them as pets. Yucky.

Slug slime comes off with alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The four-year old girl was the first to be brave enough to touch one. She ended with "Ewe! I think I squished its eyes out!"

Little blue walking hood? Goldilocks? Nope, Lenna headed off to the bathroom.

It was a pretty big campground. We needed a map to get around the first little while. Andrew was the self-appointed navigator.

This was the road that led to camp. We never saw him, but the kids were sure he was around here somewhere. Especially at night when it was time to go to the bathroom.

Checking out the map. Where are we again? See, it is a bit complicated. We were at the very top of the place. You could take an hour to get from one end to the other if you tried hard enough.

Especially by flashlight, in your pajamas, looking for the bathroom, trying not to wake up Bigfoot.