Adam's Blog July 24th, Day 19!

Alright, time to head out for some more Redwoods forest stuff. On our drive out to the location we run across a heard of elk drinking from a lake! Along a more coastal stretch I see what I think is a see otter playing around on the rocks. We get to the park and on our drive in there's another herd of elk feeding at the edge of a meadow! It's a good morning for whitewife (Gideon's pronunciation of wildlife). We stop by the ranger station for maps and head off to the "Big Tree" and it truly is massive. It's amazing to see these trees that have been living for centuries, some estimates even put some of the larger ones back to the time of the crusades or Christ. Anyway, the kids have a great time climbing around in some of the ones that have fallen while Courtney and I are just amazed at the whole environment. Two short trails and a lot of beautiful forest down, we get back in the car and head out on our way.

Some time during the morning trip we hear about a place called the Trees of Mystery. Sounds intriguing and it offers a sky tram ride that we think Gideon will enjoy so we decide to stop by. "How do we know when we get there" we ask. Their website answers, "Look for the big Paul Bunyon and Babe". Sure enough, they were the easiest way to know that we had arrived there. We get out and head over to the main area and we hear a man talking on a megaphone. I just assume that it's some guy but I quickly realize that it's supposed to be Paul Bunyon talking to you. How cute. We get the tickets and head off to the trail that leads us to the sky tram. There are some really cool trees that these people have been able to identify on their property. After a good stroll we make it to the tram line and just when I'm about to complain about how long it is, another crowd of people arrived. I just decided to keep my mouth shut and be happy that we got there before these other people got there. We get put into a tram with another mother-daughter couple and off we go. Gideon is impressed but not as much as we had thought that he would be. It turned out the entertainment for the ride was Courtney's little anxiety attacks at each of the support poles as the car went over the wheels. The view at the top was alright but nothing spectacular. Certainly not worth the wait had it not been for Courtney and the bonus was that we got to enjoy them again on the way back down!

Off we head to the next stop, the Sea Lion Caves. This is a place where a ton of local sea lions like to rest and as a result we get a cool opportunity to see them. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I was very impressed with the number of sea lions and their activity. Gideon and Abigail were both impressed too. It was really cool being able to be that close to them but also not interfering with them or their natural actions. There was also a pretty vista of a near by lighthouse to enjoy and, if you come at the right time of year, some whale watching is possible here. While we missed the whales, we did get a chance to see a sea bird that only comes to shore to nest there nesting in the crevasses of the cave. A very cool place indeed.

A couple more dramatic views of the Oregon coast and we are in town for our hotel.

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