HENRY COWELL REDWOODS STATE PARK (CA) ★

WEDNESDAY - We had a short 50-mile jaunt up CA-1 between the larger towns of Monterey and Santa Cruz.

There wasn't much to photograph as the route wasn't exactly along the coast. We passed through several smaller towns and some agricultural fields where it looked as if they were picking fresh strawberries and artichokes, at least that's what they were selling at the fruit stands along the highway.

We arrived at the entrance gate of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park just after noon and once again were asked to leave and return at 2:00PM when check-in starts. Also today is the first day of the season for this park to be open, so it's not like they had anyone on any of the sites last night or this morning.

To say we "squeezed" ROVER and THE POD into our site would be a huge understatement.
ROVER's front bumper is off the road, but I put up a couple warning cones just in case.

We've got plenty of room on the site, just none of it is usable with our type of setup.

THURSDAY - You know how they say "no phone call after midnight is ever good news"? Well the same goes for text alerts!

This morning at 1:42AM Tricia and I both got these Emergency Alerts on our cellphones, only Tricia's was on silent, so hers didn't make a sound to wake her up. That's OK, mine did!

I'm not sure why, but I was already awake when it felt like the whole trailer shifted, like one of the stabilizer jacks collapsed or something. It was accompanied with a loud boom, but not like a branch or anything fell and hit the roof of THE POD.

So what happened? When I re-awoke at 7:00AM I checked the local news and here's what I found out.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, "At 1:45AM a magnitude 4.6 earthquake was centered .6-miles east southeast of Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains at a depth of 6.7 miles. No aftershocks were reported in the hours after the quake struck, but the USGS estimates the chance of a magnitude 3.0 aftershock over the next week is currently 27%".

To put all this into perspective, we are currently just 9.4-miles east southeast of the epicenter of today's earthquake in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Also we are expecting to stay in this location for the next 6-days, so we have a 27% chance that this will happen again, but at a slightly lower shake factor.

Welcome to another exciting feature of "The Golden State" of California. Good news is, we can now add "Survived a California Earthquake" to both of our travel résumés.

This morning we are headed over to the Roaring Camp Train Depot, located just 2.5-miles up the road from the campground. It's so close that when the steam engine blows their whistle leaving the depot we can clearly hear it at our campsite.

Roaring Camp offers two entirely different train routes. One goes north from the depot and is called the Redwood Forest Steam Engine, the other goes south from the depot and is called the Santa Cruz Beach Train, which takes you to the Boardwalk on Santa Cruz Beach.

Guess which one we're doing?

That's right, we're heading into the forest north of the depot for a 75-minute round-trip ride up to the summit of Bear Mountain.

REDWOOD FOREST STEAM ENGINE
FROM THE ROARING CAMP TRAIN DEPOT

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Whether you buy your tickets online or at the depot, you'll have to enter the gift shop.
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That's where everyone gets their tickets. I'm sure they planned it that way.
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The funny thing is, no one ever asked to see ours or anyone elses tickets, ever!
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At the Roaring Camp Depot they have several activities to teach the kids new skills.
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This telegraph booth sends messages to another booth about 50' away.
There is a chart on the wall explaining morse code to teach the children how to use it.
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They have a building set up here to represent a sheriff's office.
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Next door was a pretty detailed print shop, something I'm very familiar with after 39-years
in the trade, although I never had to operate equipment like this!
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Here's the 750-gallon water tank used to replenish the steam engine's tank after each tour.
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Eight minutes late we rolled out of the depot. That's pretty much on time using "train time".
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It wasn't long before we were out amongst the redwoods.
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You don't get a feel for just how tall these trees are until you're looking up at them.
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There are hiking trails all aound the lower tracks near the depot.
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Redwoods mutiply by sprouting new trees from their roots. That's why you see them in groups.
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The Conductor/Narrator called this the "Woodpecker Tree" for obvious reasons.
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They never proved it, but in 1976 this trestle was burned beyond repair by an arsonist.
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Without that trestle the train now has to back up on a side track to the next level.
At the end of the video you can see us at the switch track that puts us on the next higher level
of the corkscrew shaped rail up to the summit of Bear Mountain.
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Instructions for when we take our 10-minute stop at the summit of Bear Mountain.
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This circlular group of redwoods all sprouted from a single tree in the center.
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Standing in the center and looking up. Just magical!
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The "parent tree" in the center didn't survive a more recent fire outbreak.
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We are nearing the conclusion of our rest stop at the summit...
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...but still had time to take a few photos of our 112-year old steam engine.
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It's the youngest engine in the entire Roaring Camp fleet.
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I hear the whistle blow four times and was first one back on the train, Tricia was second!
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Time to head back down the mountain at what I percieved to be a little faster pace.
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Some of these redwoods are less than a foot from the rail cars as we pass by.
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Here the Conductor/Narrator explains the term "Goose Pen" to the passengers.
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Here the Conductor/Narrator explains the term "Blow Down Procedure" and demonstrates.
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Our tour is complete, but the 12:00PM tour is still in the depot at 12:10PM.
Again, that's pretty close according to accepted "train time schedules".

FRIDAY - While Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is nice and very conveniently located near the Roaring Camp Train Depot, we would have prefered to have camped at Big Basin Redwoods State Park just 18.5-miles north of here.

Unfortunately, that is no longer possible thanks to an August 2020 forest fire that was started by a lightening strike.

Established in 1902, Big Basin Redwoods State Park is California’s oldest state park. The August 2020 forest fire swept through 97% of the park's property, destroying all historic structures and radically changing the landscape.

Five and a half years later, virtually all of the redwoods are still here, but the campgrounds, visitor centers and other manmade structures are gone.

Today, only the main drive through the park is open, the Big Basin Highway, which is where you'll find a makeshift visitor center in a 20' long shipping container. Several hiking trailheads begin here and we took the short .6-mile Redwood Loop Trail to see what the park looks like today.

BIG BASIN REDWOODS STATE PARK

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Before we reached the State Park boundary we were seeing trees blackened at the bottom.
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The further into the park we went the higher the burn scars were on the trees.
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This tree decided to grow branches all the way to the ground after the fire (not typical).
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Although others seem to be doing the same thing?
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Here is the trailhead for the .6-mile Redwood Loop Trail in Big Basin Redwood State Park.
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We found evidence that the wildlife is returning to the park as well.
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Here's Tricia trying to see the top of this 300'+ tall Coast Redwood tree.
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This is what she was looking at.
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Another one of the taller trees in the park.
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Here is one of the trees that didn't survive the fire. If it was damaged before the fire
it may have allowed the fire to get passed the 12"-thick fire-resistant bark.
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The new redwood trees are already 5' tall around the original trees base.
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There are numeous 7" long California Banana Slugs in the forest, but we only saw one.
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Here I am leaning against what I thought was the tallest tree along the trail.
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It sure looked like one of the 300'+ tall trees to me.
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We saw several of these wood piles getting ready to be burned...
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...in hopes that when the next fire comes through there won't be as much fuel for the fire.
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Can you see me waaaaaaay up the trail? I feel tiny standing next to these trees.
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This bridge, along with the makeshift visitor center, were they only improvements we saw today.
They have the funds to rebuild the campgrounds, but can't agree on the best way to do it.

TUESDAY - Today we are finsihing up our visit of Central California by taking care of chores, like laundry, groceries, showers and gasoline.

Tomorrow we head north into what is considered Northern California for a week packed full of sightseeing opportunities, so I was glad to take it easy for our last three days here at Henry Cowell State Park.

Anybody what to venture a guess as to where and what we will be visiting next week?

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