Double Feature

We got an earlier start yesterday since it was sunny and rapidly warming up. One of the places we wanted to return to was the Big Trees State Park. The last time we went there, there was just too much snow to walk the trail. This time, there was still snow, but we were able to walk the whole trail through the North Grove. This was a one mile trail, marked with 26 observation points that described the history and significance of these mammoth trees. We were able to get some more shots of these unbelievable trees. The first is one of Josie standing in front of one of the largest, named the Empire State:

Followed by a shot looking up from the base of this same tree:

There were several trees that had openings at their base that were caused by various events such as fires or fungus:

Then there is the "Father of the Forest" which is a tree that fell, according to the history, before the grove was discovered. It was completely hollow from decomposition and you can see how big this tree was by looking at the length of the trail that passes it:

Then there was one of the most famous trees in the Grove, that of The "Pioneer Cabin Tree" that has a cut that was made to compete with the "Wawona Tunnel Tree" that was carved out in Yosemite park. This tree was chosen because of its wide base:

It was a fascinating walk through one of our country's historical settings. Just to think that these trees, the larger ones at least, are as much as 2,000 - 3,000 years old - it is mind boggling.

After leaving the Big Trees, we thought we might stop at the Columbia State Historical Park on the way home. This is a State Park that is right down the street from us and we pass it nearly everyday. We're glad we finally stopped to see this historical area of California. The whole preserved downtown area is blocked off to vehicle traffic which is one reason we just drove by it everyday. This is where the gold rush started in 1850, and you can really imagine what it was like at that time. We took several pictures, some of which are below. The first one is of main street:

There was a nice park at the end of the street where there were families standing along gold panning troughs, actually panning for gold:

The final shot is of the Wells Fargo Stage Depot that is the same one used in 1850. The inside of this depot was still exactly the same as it was in 1850. Of course, they had a stagecoach that would take people on a ride through the whole Columbia downtown area and into the old residential areas:

We made good use of the beautiful day we had yesterday. Both places we went were exciting and left us with a better appreciation of how things were in the "old days".

Today is cloudy - so far. we'll have to get a weather report to see if this will be a stay inside day, or another outside adventure day...