trees of mystery
After the hidden beach, my next destination was down the 101 at the Trees of Mystery, where I was greeted by a gigantic statue of Paul Bunyan, who is either wearing a black fleece undershirt or else is showing more chest hair than I should ever want to own in this or any other lifetime. I guess this falls under the ‘roadside attraction’ category — it’s not really a theme park, although it does have a ride. It’s a hike through an area of the redwood forest wherein there are a number of interesting trees growing within a mile or so of each other. Immediately upon entering, for example, you’ll find yourself looking at the Family Tree, which has a dozen trees growing out of the same trunk. As you can see in this underexposed photo, this involves some of the trees growing horizontally out of the main trunk, and others growing vertically out of those trees and out of the branches of the main tree.
After following the path for a while and taking in the Lightning Tree and the awesome Cathedral Tree and the truly titanic Brotherhood Tree you get a chance to ride a cable car up the hill to a little platform where you can take in the sea, and tops of the trees, and all the surrounding mountains. Oh, and an osprey nest!
This was another place I could have spent all day in, walking among the trees and breathing in that pure air, but the afternoon was dragging on and I knew that I still had a ways to go before I could call it a night. Still, I got a few good photos. You can see them all here.
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