With the days here growing rainier and colder, thoughts turn to the end of summer, when Jenelle and Jonathan ventured south to California to visit the Redwood National and State Parks. (The original plan was to visit Yellowstone, but that is another story. Maybe one that will happen next year.)
They drove down to the parks on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and set up camp. Within minutes, one of the early highlights of the trip occurred when Jenelle invented the Double Stuff Chocolate Oreo S’more. But the culinary wonders did not stop there as they experimented with their new Dutch oven. By the end of the trip, they were producing things that Jonathan thought he would never eat on a camping trip, including pizza and apple/cherry pie.
During their stay of four days and four nights, they saw wildlife, wildflowers and (of course) really, really big wild trees. They also visited Fern Canyon, a canyon with vertical walls that are covered with ferns. During the hikes they went on, they noticed that many of the groves were named after people (presumably ones who had money to donate to the park). Jenelle and Jonathan started thinking that it would be great to have a Vance Grove in the park. As they were driving home on Wednesday, they happened upon just such a place, named after an early pioneer in the area.
Update: Here’s a link to a panorama shot that I couldn’t upload into the photo site (for unknown reasons).
