The First Adventure

The Redwoods.  When we were walking on that trail together, and looking up at those trees, 

I felt something like giggley awe.  At every new tree, we stopped and looked at each other, laughed and thought “We’re really here!!”    I gawked and thought- I know that I seriously can’t comprehend the awesomeness of these trees.                   

I didn’t really feel little while we were in the Redwoods, but once we went to normal sized forests and I didn’t have to crane my neck back to glimpse the top, I realized just how gi-mungo they are!  Regular trees aren’t an elephant thick.  I don’t laugh in spurty joy at the sight of them.  The Redwoods are, majesty.

     

   (This is practically what Dad looked like all day.)  :)

And they are quite interesting too!  Did you know that the Redwoods have shallow root systems?  (The major roots are only 1 inch thick!)  No way!  Well, the thing is, their roots grow out from the tree for about 50 to 100 feet, intertwining with other tree’s roots.  That makes them super strong. 

Forest fires and Redwoods actually have a pretty good relationship.  Fires clear out other plants that are crowding the ground, and if a fire gets close to a Redwood, the Redwood’s bark is so thick that fire usually can’t penetrate and burn up the tree!  If a fire does burn through, the tree can keep on growing.  We saw (and walked into) lots of trees with blackened, charred, hollowed insides.  But when you look up, there’s a tall, healthy tree growing above your head!  Hmm, makes me think of beauty from ashes.

Redwoods need moisture, and they actually are in a rainforest.  But when it doesn’t rain, (like this serious drought that we, I mean California, is currently in) it’s nice for them to be living by the coast!  Fog rolls in from the sea, and gets caught in the Redwood’s “leaves” (more like pine needles).  The water drips off the leaves and down to the ground, finishing the trip of the Redwood’s artificial rain!  It also waters other plants.  So cool!

Speaking of Redwood leaves, sometimes when the leaves die and fall off, they land in crevices in the tree.  They decompose and become soil.  Then, the lucky seeds of other plants, (even other kinds of trees!) will find their way to the Redwood’s Wonder View Resort, er, that plot of dead leaf dirt.  

    One day, a huge group of ferns was discovered growing on a Redwood- the mass weighed 1,600 pounds!  Heavier than an adult polar bear!  Those trees must be pretty strong.  

Up in those branches of the giant Redwoods is another world.  Little animals make their homes there, and never see the ground!  Branches tangle and create castles in the sky.  Researchers have even gotten lost exploring up there!

These big beauties can live for thousands of years.  We saw living trees that were babies when Jesus was born!  Some are even 3,00 years old.  Wow!  

                       

I loved how the branches seemed to shoot out from the trees!

  

  My cute tiny Mommy.

Can you possibly find a person in here?

My photo buddy!

(Talk about castles in the sky!!  This tree, or, trees? blew our minds. )

   My (little) brother.

The Lord is big.  And these trees prove it!

-Brie <3

P.S.  If you see your Dad doing this:

And you try to do it, thinking of course you don't need any help, then you will probably end up slipping right down square on your knee and at the end of the day your Mom and sister will have to be your crutches during bathroom stops.

    (And nobody even got a photo of me falling!!)  ;)