Deep Time

Day 19 Photo Album

September 21, 2009

Waking in the heart of the Redwood forest is a great feeling.  Though I can hear the highway when outside, it seems very far away.  This little town of Redcrest has a population of 112 and an elevation of some 300 feet.  Redwoods stand around the grounds like beings beyond worry, oh so far beyond even thinking.  They seem to absorb everything around without being bothered by it in the least.  I didn’t intend to be back here in the forest, but am very glad it worked out that way.  I think I have something to learn from these trees and as I read the materials about the redwoods, I believe I may spend some more time walking among them today.  Going beyond the word mystery I found myself describing the feeling here as deep time.  I feel held here.  In stillness and deep time. 

This “resort” is the kind of place I’ve driven by so many times while traveling and wondered what it would be like to stay.  The use of the word resort is interesting.  It must be a category that is used in the hotel industry to denote some additional features.  This is far from the modern resorts with sanitized entertainment.  It’s just some buildings linked together in the woods and outfitted like a motel, but there are picnic tables and grills and you’re nestled in the woods.

I took my good old time getting out and headed south on The Avenue of the Giants again.  I stopped in the Founders Grove to see the largest trees in the forest.  The tallest has fallen over, and then I think they found another tree even taller.  Regardless of these points, it is simply a moving experience to wander among them.  Everyone moves as though in a cathedral and speaks with soft tones. 

The heat in the forest was about 60 to 65 through mid-day.  As I headed south to around Miranda, the temperature was up to 85.  It continued to climb to 102 as I got south.  Pretty darn hot in the direct sun, but in the shade, no problem. 

At the junction before Legget I turned west and drove the winding road to the coast.  The temperature had quickly descended to 60 as I headed west.  On the map it looks like about 20 straight miles, but it is actually about 45 miles or more.  I loved it.  Short curving turns up and down in dense forest.  No peeking or taking hands off the wheel allowed.  When I was getting sort of tired, the ocean suddenly appeared in front of me just beyond the high cliff. 

The air was fresh and the ocean was roaring.  There are many areas to pull over and take the view from high above.  Pointy rocks jutting out of the water and a few sandy beaches tucked into the rocky cliffs.

As I went south I was longing to stay near this coast.  There were a few public camping sites right off the road, but it looked too exposed to both the elements and the highway.  Then low and behold I turned a corner and found a KOA that isn’t in the directory!  It has sites about an eighth of a mile from a very long beach, perhaps two miles, though you can camp right on the beach if you like.  I’m neatly tucked into a site with hedges surrounding me and the bathrooms very close by.

A long walk on the beach was the strangest thing.  It isn’t like the Atlantic beach at all.  There are huge masses of dead sea plants that look like twisted snakes with bulbous heads.  The ocean is more forceful than Crane Beach (which is admittedly rather tame).  The cliffs rise up in wonderful formations and the rocks in the ocean are very pointy, like wings caught in mid-flight. 

The temperature is quite cool here.  It was about 65 when I arrived around 4 or 4:30 and quickly fell as the sun went down.  Still, I’m bundled up in my tent and just fine. 

Odd, isn’t it?  Sitting in a tent with internet connection and all this electronic stuff!