Camping at Prairie Creek, Redwood Park
We didn't get any pictures on the way in or the first evening. This is the next morning and we are all excited for the plans we have for the day. The day started off great with Avi saying her first word! She said Mama and then repeated it another 4 times after. She's such a bright little girl! She just said it again as I'm writing this. :)
Matrim immediately ran to climb up on the roots of the 2 redwoods in front of our camp.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! Athena is looking radiant while Mat helps cook up the morning breakfast. Camp food is always so much tastier, especially when Athena cooks it since she does such a great job!
Breakfast is done and we're hanging around camp getting our food digested and ready to go hiking.
One of Avi and I. She does a good job of sitting up on her own. She can even stand for several minutes and take a few steps if you help her with balance by letting her hold your hands.
Mat didn't realize he wouldn't be able to get up the moss on the tree.
The camp was a great one. We had coastline, beach (which we never made it to this trip), good campsite, friendly rangers, lots of good hiking, and an abundance of wildlife in and out of the camp. This was our camp squirrel. Mat had fun chasing it around the several times it popped up in camp. It was fast so it was difficult to get a picture.
Aviendha, taking her after breakfast nap.
These birds are pretty, but hard to get a good picture of. They seem to recognize that you have a camera and are camera shy. If you try to take their picture they'll hop or fly away, but if not they'll get closer and hold still for you to see them. I had to try several different times to even get this picture and it's not totally in focus.
We decided that our highest priority to hike was Fern Canyon (amongst many good choices). Here's a picture of the fam near the entrance to the canyon. It's an awesome view to see in person!
A fallen tree lying over the creek running down the canyon.
A big wall of several fern varieties. It felt very refreshing on this hike. Great scenery and a good clean air to breath as you hiked.
The fam crossing one of several little bridges. Both walls of the canyon are loaded with fern and other plant life. Some of the walls were wet enough that you could see water continuously dripping off the plant life.
Also there were several pretty water falls. Here's a small one running over moss and lichen.
Here's the top of a double waterfall. We stopped near this one when a group of fellow hikers asked us if we'd like to puff with them. Of course I sampled a couple different kinds of their stash and some hash and shared some of mine before continuing up the trail. Oh, and a couple (that were probably late forties were passing) and asked if I'd take their picture for them. The dude with the stash invited them to join the circle. Athena and I both were fairly sure they would refuse and keep hiking, but the lady ended up hesitating and then coming over to stand by us. I guess her hubby was in construction and so didn't partake, but she did. After taking her first couple tokes she mentioned she hadn't smoked in 10 years. I laughed and told her the hike was about to get much more beautiful. ;)
A fallen redwood that has fallen into one of the walls of fern.
Someone kindly told us about this waterfall that was hidden off the main path. It was a small space and other people were waiting to see it so I couldn't get a better picture.
The back side of the loop took us along the top ridge of the canyon. Here the forest opened into a meadow. I like to see the towering ring of trees around these open spots.
There were a lot of elk in the area. There were several elk at the entrance to our camp and at the entrance to the coastal road we drove to get into and out of our Fern Canyon hike.
Here's one of the clearer pictures I took of an elk.
LOL! "Let's all moon the human with the camera on 3." This is a picture from the car of the sign in front of the wild elk pasture.
We're back from the hike and it's Aviendha's dinner time. After that we got invited to go to a Prairie Creek Campfire. We decided to go and check it out. It wasn't too bad. The ranger put on an informative little program filled with facts about the camp, wildlife, and safety. At the end, Athena and Mat got their complimentary hot chocolate and we talked to the ranger a bit before returning to camp.
Now it's our turn for dinner. Matrim and Athena are waiting patiently for the coals to get hot enough for me to grill us up some Fillet Mignon.
Here's a banana slug moving through our camp (that's Mat's shoe to put a little size context in the picture). This one is medium sized (they get up to 8 inches and are the 2nd largest slug in the world, according to the ranger).
I spotted this baby as I was prepping dinner. It was pretty small and I was surprised when I saw it.
A lighter, plastic fork, and Athena finger to give size context.
That's 1 of 2 elk/deer (we're not sure) hanging out in the trees right outside our camp site. Athena saw them and got several of pictures before I got up and saw them. They hung out a while longer before moving off away from the creek that runs down the backside of our camp site.
You will submit to my will. ;)
Probably the best shot of the bunch.
A shot of both of them. One on the left, one on the right.
Some kind of flying beetle is eating the remains of steak on the grill.
I've just got Avi to sleep so we can start the regrettable task of taking down camp and packing to leave.
"Mat, wake up. It's time to go." :)
Aviendha is distracting our work with a fun game of peek-a-boo. She loves to play it and laugh and laugh!
"Oh no, where's Avi?!" ... "Peek-a-boo!"
We've returned from our camping trip to find a few nice gifts for the kids from Grandpa D. Here's Mat in his new Cars clothes. It's always a bummer having to put all the camp gear back away. We're stoked to go again! Probably in 2 weekends.
This picture is over-exposed and I was too lazy to fix it before posting (as usual), but she's wearing a very cute, little hippie girl outfit! She's also pretty tired so she didn't want to smile.
Camping took it's toll and both kids are asleep early. :)
Here's 2 more pictures that I took and decided to post even though the camping is over (she's still got her new outfit on since she only got to wear it for a minute before bed). They were too cute to choose one, so I'm posting both. ;) This one was a cute face as she played with her favorite toy on the walker.
Here is an adorable smile for Dad!
5 Comments:
I love that you are posting pics so often! As always the kids are sooo cute! Avi is growing so fast! Looks like a kool place to camp and a beautiful hike!
Thu Jun 15, 04:50:00 PM PDT
It does look like a nice little camping area, although giant mutant banana slugs sort of freak me out...
It isn't going to be very long now before Mat and Avi start posting their own blogs. Now that is going to be interesting.
Thu Jun 15, 11:00:00 PM PDT
Joey: I've been posting so often lately because we really miss you both and everyone else who keeps up on what is happening with us out here by checking in on the blog. We wish we were sharing many of these moments rather than blogging about them.
Also it takes about 45 seconds to upload a pic on average with cable vs. the up to 10 minutes with many more errors on dial up, so that makes it much easier to get the pictures up. :)
I think you would love the hike. It's a mellow, beautiful trail.
Jory: Athena and I were wishing we had another couple days and our good friends with us for this campground and easy access to beautiful scenery of many types. There was a ranger there that reminded us of you a little. It just made us miss having you two there camping with us that much more. (And the slugs move so slow, they're not the threat. Just remember you're repellent as the mosquitos are abundant!)
LOL, It would be interesting to read their blogs. I must say, I am jealous in many ways of Mat and Avi. I wish I'd have been as spoiled as they are in many ways. ;)
Fri Jun 16, 04:10:00 AM PDT
In many ways we need to get blog names reserved for the kids in many ways. (Yes, I am making fun of you Eric ;) you deserve it for staying up all night!)
Fri Jun 16, 04:26:00 PM PDT
I still love ya. ;) Yep, too late and too many beers.
Sun Jun 25, 10:29:00 PM PDT
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