We took a Sunday hike in Redwood National Forest, not far from home, with a cloud fog lingering close, large loud droplets hitting leaves around us as if against cardboard, the occasional birdcall from on high adding another layer of sound----but I'm not mentioning the nearby summer (much of it tourist) traffic from Highway 101, which we walked a good distance to muffle.
Temperatures felt warmer, but the car's thermometer registered 55 at close to noon, when we began our walk at the Damnation Creek trailhead, which also leads to where Old Highway 101 intersects, an easier stroll than the continuation to the ocean on the other trail (which is also lovely, but Jon was lugging his tripod and on a more "serious" photo expedition today).
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| The duff trails in these old growth forests have a silencing effect and walking on them feels like you're walking on a huge body, on someone's chest. |
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| Drawn back and forth from the large overviews to the closer ones, I love these little trampoline webs but didn't spot the spider who lives here. |
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| Columbia lilies are the main reason we hiked today; they're in full bloom in dense numbers along the busy highway but not as prolific in the forest. But it's much safer to get close to them here. |
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| I'd just wondered where all the banana slugs were. . . |
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| This photo doesn't capture what fascinated me about this group of ferns: their thin dark lines of stalks sketched boldly within their lovely green fronds. |
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| Nettle's blooming. . . |
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| A large maiden-hair fern with their beautifully shaped leaves. . . |
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| Fallen columbia lily petal curled among duff. . . |
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| The more serious photographer I frequently left behind. . . |
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| . . . as I held my little camera beneath the subjects. . . |
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| . . . the lilies underneath their foggy canopy of redwoods . . . |
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| Dewy spiderwebs catching a breeze as gentle as a breath. . . |
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| . . . and redwood sorrel's green palate punctuated by a glare of white flower, |
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| their purplish undersides reflecting against sticks, turning pinkish. |
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| I think this pink, lavender, and white flower is a type of vetch. |
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| As we began the return trip a couple of hours later, the sun began to break through, blue skies to shine, and our day retained the polish of fog against trees, of clear forest breathing. |
