Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to

Redwood National Park

In August 2008, Joe and I visited (amongst many places that trip) the Redwood National Park which is located in northern California. The Redwood National Park was designated in 1968, which contains 133,000 acres of land.

Giant Sequoias (Redwoods) are the world's largest trees. They grow to an average height of 160-279ft and 20-26ft in diameter.

The picture taken below was at the 'Avenue of the Giants' at Redwood National Park. It is a world-famous scenic drive that is approximately 31 miles long. It is by far the most outstanding display of sequoia's in the entire Redwood National Park. As you can see the tree is 'tiny'... Oh wait NO I'm tiny!

Below, Joe is standing inside the trunk of a sequoia that had fallen over. There is no tap root in a sequoia, and all of the other roots will go no deeper than 6-12 feet. Now one would think... How does a tree that large, with such shallow roots stay upright? It is from the support of all the other sequoia's growing close together, intermingling their root systems.

Interesting Fact: Believe it or not, a sequoia will 'drink' approximately 200-500 gallons of water per day. The sequoia can hold 34,000lbs of water. Redwood National Park receives approximately 122 inches of rain per year, that's 10.167feet.

In comparison to Redwood National Park:

Raleigh, NC receives 45 inches per year, that's 3.75 feet

Orlando, FL receives 48.35 inches per year, that's 4.03 feet

Boca Raton, FL receives 57.27 inches per year, that's 4.77 feet

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Also in August 2008, after Redwood National Park we drove about 3 hours east to Lassen Volcanic Park northeastern California. Lassen Peak was designated as a National Park in 1907, by Theodore Roosevelt. Lassen Peak is the largest dome volcano in the world (that they know of), reaching an elevation of 10,457feet. From the bottom of the trail head (@8,500ft) it is approximately 2,000 feet in elevation to the top. It was a 2,000ft uphill steady, steep grade of 15%. Round trip it is about 5 miles and took about 4.5 hours.

We hiked 2 volcanoes at this park. The first one is called a Cinder Cone and it was like climbing black sand. The picture below is of Lassen Peak that was taken atop of the Cinder Cone Volcano.

Lassen Peak

The picture below was taken probably about midway up Lassen Peak. We had to take quite a few breaks as the 15% grade was a killer! Behind me, is a circular formation called the Vulcan's Eye. This is where the lava spews from... Lassen Peak is currently dormant (obviously, or I wouldn't have stepped foot near it), however its last eruptions (yes more than one) were in 1914-1915. The 'Great Eruption' was seen from 150 miles away.

We made it to the top!!! Once we got to the top we had some pretty amazing views! It was very, very windy at the top and the crazy party were all of the butterflies being blown around. The most noticeable butterfly is the California Tortoiseshell (beautiful orange and black). The butterflies are carried by the updraft of the wind and they eventually work their way down off of the peak. Quite amazing for sure!