Camping in the redwoods

We went camping in Portola State Park this weekend. The trees there are coastal redwoods, this means they are tall rather than wide. It's very peaceful among all these tall trees, but also cold! We were rather caught by surprise by the cool temperature - it's hard to remember when it's so warm in the valley that you are going to need a fleece and a hat when camping.



There is a small creek running through the park which is a souce of much entertainment. The boys were thrilled to discover a dead fish in the water, which turned out to be a steelhead trout once they described it to a park ranger. The stream is currently running very low due to our dry winter, and consequently it's too low for the spawning trout.

We followed our usual routine: eating and drinking while the boys roam around exploring and discovering things...

...in this case a banana slug for which the Santa Cruz mountains are famed! These slugs are so irridescent that it's hard to imagine that they are well camoflagued, however in their habitat they look rather like the many yellow leaves that cover the forest floor.

Another lovely weekend.