Friends and fun in the redwoods

As usual, life seems to skip along as fast as possible, and blogging regularly proves difficult. In any case, we finished off our summer with a number of exciting events and trips in our local area. We were thrilled to get a visit from Katherine and Bea to Inverness, where Ranier discovered that babies are pretty fascinating.

Jeanne was able to come out for the visit to Inverness as well, and we enjoyed one of our sunnier summer days on one of the new decks.

The four of us took off from Inverness for a few days of camping. The plan had been to meet up with friends from Mendocino County, but plans changed for everyone else; regardless, we decided to take advantage of the time we had set aside and checked out a Austin Creek State Park, which is located in the hills above Armstrong Redwoods State Park just outside of Guerneville, on the Russian River (Sonoma County). Getting there is half the fun, up a very narrow and windy road that starts in the giant redwoods and works its way up through oaks and grasslands to the top of a hill, and back into a redwood grove. We picked a really nice site and started to explore.

The campground is adjacent to a pond which was full of bullfrogs. We had fun spotting them in the pondweed.

This is rugged country, with steep canyons, mixed forests of oaks, pines, redwoods, and lots of other California natives, including tons of poison oak.

Fortunately, there was a nicely graded road-trail that we hiked on for a couple of hours. We were hoping to reach a stream, but we turned around before we did so. Great hike though, and Ranier managed almost all of it himself.

The next morning we were treated to an amazing scene of the fog from the coast below us, having streamed up the Russian River valley during the night and just barely filled in the valleys right below the campsite. We spent some time enjoying the scene and admiring the fog, flowing river-like over the trees below.

There were lots of cool, hollowed-out trees in the area, including this one nearby...




Dahrius and Ranier love to make each other laugh. I am already dreading the day when their laughter doesn't fill the soundscape of our lives.

We spent much of the day hiking around Armstrong Redwoods, gaping at the tall trees. We also found a few that had fallen down...

We also swam in the Russian River, played ball in the woods, and much else besides. I think we'll make plans to return next year.