COASTAL REDWOODS
You can’t stay in San Francisco for any length of time without crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and heading up to Muir Woods to see the oldest and tallest living things: the Coastal Redwoods. The Woods, in a secluded valley north of San Francisco, is one of the last remaining stands of Coastal Redwoods left in the world. But, it was almost not to be. A bit of history here:
Originally there were 2 million acres of coastal redwoods in America (3 times the size of Rhode Island). However, 95% of this has been logged and now only 117,000 acres remain (3 times the size of Washington DC). There was a time when coastal redwoods grew throughout the northern hemisphere of the planet, around the world. Today, they are only found in a 450-mile strip along the Pacific coast from central California to central Oregon. The rest have been logged and most of this logging began in 1849 when so many came west to search for gold that they needed wood fast to house all the newcomers.
Slowly but surely the redwoods were disappearing. Then Congressman William Kent and his wife, Elizabeth bought 611 acres of redwoods in a remote valley north of San Francisco with the goal of protecting these for prosperity. They paid $45,000 which was a princely sum in the early part of the century but is priceless now. Then, when they heard that the water company planned to dam Redwood Creek, flooding the entire valley, they donated 295 acres of their holdings to the federal government. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area a National Monument and named it Muir Woods at the behest of the Kents, after John Muir who was a friend of theirs. So much for the water company. And, we now have this pristine valley filled with one of the last remaining strands of redwoods.
‘Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries since Christ’s time - and long before that - God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, tempests and floods; but He cannot save them from fools - only Uncle Sam can do that.’
John Muir in a letter to William Kent in 1909.
THANK YOU WILLIAM KENT
We started out early and as we approached the woods, we noticed very few cars., even though it was a Sunday. We had heard that this park was usually crowded, being so close to a major city. We thought we were pretty lucky and that we wouldn’t have to fight the crowds. Then as we would down into the valley we began to see more cars. We hit the first parking lot: full, the second: full, and so we headed off down the road where we finally found a parking spot along the road, about 1/2 mile from the entrance.
When we got to the entrance, and saw 11 -12 tour buses though most of these were not full sized buses. Then we saw the line at the entrance.
Looks like we’ll have plenty of company in the Woods after all. One of the tour guides was handing out tickets to her charges with this warning: ‘don’t go any further than you can return.’ Good advice for all of us, though a bit unclear.
These trees are amazing and we so enjoyed hiking among them. It’s difficult to look straight ahead when you want to look up at their majesty. I got a crick in my neck from all the craning I was doing. Of course, I was having trouble getting the whole tree in any picture. The canopy was thick and let in little sun. John Frost’s line:
‘The woods are lovely dark and deep’
came to mind.
Thus the other greenery here, both trees, shrubs, ferns and plants have adapted to the lack of sunlight. These trees grow best along the coast where the fog is thick. Rain waters them in the winter while fog waters them in the summer when it condenses on the leaves and drips to the ground. And, I wondered why we didn’t have any in Iowa. Silly me.
Here is a chart showing the relative sizes of a few items. We have seen the sequoias and they are magnificent. I don’t think the picture below does them justice since I think they are much wider at the base than shown here. The diameter of the sequoia can get to 40’ while that of the redwood gets to 22’.
We had a glorious hike through the redwood forest and beyond into some BLM land. Because of the recent rains, several trails were closed but we just chose some others to complete our loops.
Though the coast redwood is one of the world's fastest growing conifers, its cones are tiny — about the size of a marble. Each cone contains a few dozen tiny seeds: It would take well over 100,000 seeds to weigh a pound! Here are 3 cones in Gary’s hand.
Notice how small they are. In good conditions, these redwood seedlings grow rapidly, sometimes more than a foot annually. Young trees also sprout from their parent's roots, taking advantage of the energy and nutrient reserves contained within the established, shallow root system.
While redwoods can grow to nearly 380 feet, the tallest tree in the Muir Woods is 258 feet. The average age of the redwoods in the Monument are between 500 and 800 years old with the oldest being at least 1,200 years old.
SAUSALITO
When we left Muir Woods, we headed on over to Sausalito which we heard was a neat little coast town. We had heard that there were loads of people living on what are called house barges’ with out motors as opposed to house boats which do have motors and can move from place to place. Obviously Gary and I were interested in seeing them since we also live in a smaller residence.
And, here’s their ‘street’.
Well, Sausalito has lots of shops, lots of bars and lots of restaurants but not a lot of bathrooms and, what it has, is not what we should be showing our foreign tourists. I was embarrassed when two Japanese women used them and expressed their dismay. Disgusting. I’m thinking that if Sausalito wants our dollars they should give us a nice clean facilities. Meanwhile I didn’t find much there worth visiting. I hope all those people who came over for the day on the ferry found more than I did.
Back over the bridge and it’s certainly worth one more picture.
I believe I’ve mentioned the phrase ‘marine layer’ several times in my blogs. We learned about this in San Diego and are renewing our acquaintance with it here in San Francisco. It is a heavy fog-like layer that hangs around over the city and blows in form the ocean. Here is what it can look like over San Francisco. It is the grey stuff at the top of the picture. We get it a lot here in Pacifica but can go into SF and have a beautifully sunny day. Or, conversely, we can enjoy the sun in SF and, as we head home, notice the marine layer hovering over us until it covers us completely in Pacifica. Fog is white, marine layer is grey.
12.3 2405’
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