fWill-Do
5/6/00: A Week in Silicon Valley

Part III - Weekend: Day Two

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329' tall redwood

Day Two finds us traveling west and south of San Jose. We went through Saratoga, which is a great town to visit, and up into the mountains to Big Basin State Park, home of the second tallest living thing in the world. We then traveled to Monterey and Carmel. It was raining on and off, but we still saw some cool stuff.

Click any image for a larger view.

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 Here we are in Big Basin State Park.
The size of these trees is difficult to capture in a photo because you can't really see the tops of them.

This is the bottom of the second tallest tree in the world. The title picture of this page was taken from the same spot, but pointing up.

This is actually a fairly small tree,
but the bark is really cool.

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The entire inside of this tree was charred, but the tree lives on. That's me standing inside it, so that gives some perspective.

This is actually a tree stump that's 80 feet tall. I couldn't get the top in the frame.

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This is the view inside the "stump".

Redwood trees have roots that only go about 5 or 6 feet below the surface, but fan out up to 300 feet in diameter. One reason that Redwoods grow to such immense sizes and live so long is that unlike Douglas Firs, which rarely exceed 150 feet and a few hundred years, Redwoods interlock their roots when the come in contact with each other. Thus, the entire forest becomes a single bulwark against wind and erosion. There are trees in this forest that were alive when Christ was born.
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Here we are at Monterey harbor. The sea lions are pretty amusing. I didn't really get any good shots of them, but I like this one of Maria.

This was taken along 17-mile drive, a toll road that is worth the money and the time to see. Pebble Beach golf course is there.

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Those are Pelicans all over that rock. I won't tell you what the white stuff is.

This is "Lone Cypress" and has to be the most photographed tree in the world. I've seen it on calendars and posters many times.

This type of cypress is only found on the Monterey peninsula. I suppose the conditions are just right for it: lots of warm, salty fog.

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