Hooray for sun! Took a chance on some much needed vitamin D and headed across the Golden Gate for a little hike. Oddly enough, in my decade of Northern California dwelling I've never made it over to Muir Woods. Been all around it, even dipped in a bit to get to the German Tourist Club (go find it, its awesome), but never actually taken the redwood plunge. Maybe its the chartered buses and legions of oglers that scare me. Anyhow, this was a weekday and, determined to stay as far afield of tourists as possible, we managed to sneak past the "Trail Closed" sign and ascend the Dipsea Trail towards Stinson Beach.
More nature than you can shake a stick at.
Lots of fallen trees, which is why the trail was closed. Those redwoods get huge and leave giant craters in the ground when they topple. When I get some land, I'm building a dance floor out of one of those stumps.
Already found our lucky one.
Our reward for making it back down the hill. We didn't have time to go all the way to Stinson, so we took the Ben Johnson trail back down to the Cathedral Grove. All in all about a 5 mile loop, not so bad for a couple hours of meandering.
Jesse likes to get Zen in nature. I tend to take after a squirrel and get really chatty and run around in circles.
This plaque was placed in 1945 to commemorate FDR for his role in creating the United Nations, as he passed away just before he was to open the very first UN Conference. I'd forgotten that all that happened in San Francisco.
Pretty neat to stand in the same spot as the first delegates of the United Nations.
Kind of mind-blowing to see just how old those trees are. So much we take for granted just walking past them, forgetting how long it actually took for them to get that big and how each one has scars and growth spurts and characteristics that make it different from the next.
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Want to hug a tree? Muir Woods is just across the Golden Gate Bridge on Highway 1 and there are plenty of signs to guide you. A heads up, though, the road is very, very winding, so this might not be the best excursion for a hangover.