Redwoods, The coast and Lunch

 

Armstrong Woods State Park.

We picked up Sue and Denis around 10:00 and headed for Guerneville and Bob’s place.
I was thinking that we could stop by and visit Bob and then take a walk in Armstrong Grove Redwood State Park which is right next door to Bob’s house.
After a short visit, Bob suggested that we do just that. The park entrance is about half mile from Bob’s so we all got in Patti’s car and drove to the park entrance.

We walked the trails checking out the big trees.

There were lots of interesting root balls of the fallen giants.

 

We came to a spot called the Magic Circle. Here are several large trees that have grown from the rim of an old stump that has since disappeared creating a large circle of trees.

Denis is taking a look at the view.

Here is what he sees.

A lot of the trees have interesting burls on them. Burls are a growth that forms on a tree from an injury.

Here is one that we decide should be called; the grumpy old man of the woods.

 

Here is another one called the Icicle tree.

We wandered around in the trees for an hour or so marveling at their size.

Here is a sign in front of one of the giants that will give you some idea of the size and age of these forest monarchs.

It is a bit amazing to think that if this tree was standing at the goal line of a football field and you cut it down the top would hit the goal post on the opposite end of the field.
Just picture that, Amazing eh?

Here is Sue and Denis on the trail.

The Pacific Coast Highway.

We left the park, dropped Bob off at his place and headed for the coast.
It is about a 30 minute drive from Guerneville to the Pacific Coast Highway US-1.

The ocean was fairly calm although a storm is supposed to get here tomorrow.

Lunch at Bodega Bay.

We drove to Bodega Bay and went down to the Spud Point Marina where we had lunch at the Spud Point Crab Company.

 

They have very good Clam Chowder.

Bodega Head

After lunch we drove to Bodega Head to check out the view.

This is looking north from the head.

A lot of Ice plant grow on the rocks along the coast. It can be very colorful at certain times of the year.

Here it is in it’s fall colors.

We watched the waves crashing against rocks for a while and then headed for home.

It was a really nice day.