Galactic50: Day 20-21 Redwoods National Forest

After a brief one night stop over in a very cool campground “on the beach,” we may our way to something both my friend and I were looking forward to, Redwoods National Forest! We were in luck too, as we had booked 2 nights in a nice comfy hotel, to recharge and regroup. So off we went to the end of Rt. 1 and beyond.

The drive was easy and not too long, but we got a late start in the morning so we didn’t arrive till mid afternoon. We settled in and got everything set up for our trip to Redwoods the next day.

The next day we woke up to rain, so we took our time before making our way up to the forest. Once we got there we quickly realized what all the hype was about. These trees are truly massive, and you quickly feel as though you have entered a different dimension or were swept away to some planet in another galaxy where everything is gigantic. From the size of these trees, you would expect some massive bugs, giant squirrel, or even dare I say a gigantic ape (known in these parts as Sasquatch.) I was immediately taken back and started to ask myself the very question so many other photographers have asked, “How in the world do I convey what I’m seeing?” The answer is you don’t, short of doing what National Geographic did a few years back and create a vertical panoramic photo from a camera on a pulley system that captures the entire tree in one photo, there is no way to truly express how massive these trees are, unless you are there in person.

However as I set up my camera and attempted to do just that, I had my first major malfunction of my journey. For whatever reason, my camera refused to turn on. My batteries were charged, everything was attached but I simply got no response from my camera when turning it on. I switched batteries, and messed around with the camera for about 15 minutes before giving up and switching to my backup camera, my iphone.

At first I was a little bummed, I didn’t know what was going on with my camera and I couldn’t get photos at one the places I was eagerly waiting for, but after returning to the hotel, and no longer being around some of the largest tree’s on the planet, my camera decided to turn on!!! Better yet, I loaded my iphone pictures up to my computer and I was pleasantly surprised with what I got.

Thoughts from the road:

Flying squirrels came from normal squirrels adapting to instead of climbing 50 feet down the tree they now had to travel 200 feet :).

Music from the road:

Harry Connick Jr, Pearl Jam, Nathanial Ratcliffe and the Nightsweats.

Photos from the road (all shot on my iphone):