Northern California

 As we headed south, it got sunnier. Patchy clouds then a few wispy clouds then a miraculous blue blue sky. We also managed to lay eyes on a little herd of  pretty tame Roosevelt elk somewhere near Orick Ca. They were just hanging out in someone's field, just perfect for lookylous like us.
We stopped for a couple hours at Patrick's Point State Park and explored the trails and a few tide pools on Agate Beach.

There were the usual anemones and sea stars, this one a bit reduced from it's normal size. But sea stars are regenerative, so you can't feel too bad.
We saw plenty of the same anemones we get up in Bellingham.


This is the stumper. While delicately tiptoeing over rocks and avoiding the incoming tide, we found this cartilaginous remnants of a thing. If anyone has any insight, it would be most welcome. It was about a foot long and 3-5 inches wide, there wasn't fur or scales on it, and it was clean enough that it didn't smell. If it had been a bit cleaner I might have taken it... We tried to stop at the visitor's center on the way out to quiz them, but unfortunately they closed at 4.

Redwoods!

Brandon had never been to the redwoods before. I made the executive decision to ignore most of the redwood parks farther north and to focus on the Avenue of the Giants, a road that runs parallel to the 101 through Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

It was dim in the under-story so some of the photos are a bit blurry, but here's the Otter being amazed.
As we drove along he would exclaim about the size of the trees. Which is exactly why one goes to the redwoods.

There was wood sorrel up the wazoo (a term that Brandon was previously unaware of apparently), and he took to measuring the tree in Brandon-spans.

 This old tree was nurse-logging it up with a thick coat of wood sorrel and other little shrubs and trees emerging from the duff accumulating.
 We camped in the redwoods that night, it was warm compared to our night in Oregon, and we were up and rolling shortly after 8.

 At this point there were Trilliums  left right and center, and then we saw a bear. Can you see the bear?

Of course we investigated more trees, and the Otter was continually impressed. At least that's my interpretation since he kept saying "Holy s@$#, that's a huge tree!"

We then decided to spend some time at William's Grove in the park, and began scrounging change to make the 8$ day use fee. After counting out our pennies, he tried to shove the envelope in the fee slot. That wasn't happening. Apparently the park doesn't encourage paying in change since the slot was about a centimeter wide and our envelope was an inch thick at least. Then Brandon noticed the fine print on the sign that mentioned if you have a camping pass (which we did) you're good to go... Good thing the envelope didn't fit!

One of the forks of the Eel River runs right past the grove, so it transitions from redwoods to riparian willows and maples rather quickly. So we watched some birds; robins, thrushes, juncos, kinglets, a merganser, and this sparrow singing up a storm.


It wouldn't be a Phoebasaurus blog without a mushroom... This fine specimen was spotted by Otter and was vibrant, the only red on the forest floor.

 One exciting find was wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) which I've never seen blooming. Considering how distinct and bizarre it is, well, I think you'd be excited too! This is an unopened flower, the ends of the petals untwist and the flower pops open. They are perfect (having male and female organs) but often self-fertilize due to lack of pollinator attracting nectars. The seeds however have ant-attracting oils, so ants pick them up and take them home, effectively dispersing the seeds.

Got a token canopy shot of some particularly vigorous trees. And some wood sorrel blooming. On the right are stop-along-the-road photos, Douglas iris and Indian Warriors (yes Martha, you were right).

There was a male Rufous hummingbird flitting around in the Indian Warriors. Both myself and my aging camera were too slow to get a shot, but we stood and watched him zip around in the flowers for a few minutes. For those of you who don't know what a male Rufous looks like...

http://www.jimburnsphotos.com/pages/rufoushummingbird.html

Have a marvelous Tuesday!