In the Redwoods
This is the Frémont Tree, a burnt-out, hollow redwood tree. We could all fit inside it. It was pitch black in there (but we could see high up into the trunk with a flashlight). It was an incredible feeling. I stood into a tree!
As you enter a redwood forest, you are hit right away by its majestic beauty, a sense of reverence and awe. Then, you breathe the fresh forest air. The Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is a special type of temperate rain forest, an old-growth coast redwood forest. These trees can grow beyond 300 ft tall and live to the mature age of over 2,000 years. It was stricking to see a slice of a redwood in front of the visitor center where major historical events have been marked on the tree lines (from 105 when the Chinese invented print to 1934 when it fell, this tree has seen a lot of history, Shakespeare's birth, Magellan's voyage and so much more). No wonder we feel their wisdoms when we walk in the forest! There is a feeling a protection, an embrace, not unlike what one experiences in a slot canyon...