Before my life took a few unexpected turns last year, I often took Neil and Kelly on field trips, especially when there were school vacations. That wasn’t the case so much at the end of last year, since I was busy working, but now my work is in, as I think of it, a state of suspended animation. And so, Kelly has this week off from school, and we’re all free to do as we wish together.
I still have several passes to state parks which will expire in April, so I decided to take the children to one of our local state parks, Big Basin. I found a hike just about the right length for us, and with an interesting highlight: namely the 3.5 mile hike to Sempervirens Falls and back.
The tall redwood trees are always spectacular. At the park headquarters, we saw a cross section of one of the big trees which sprouted around the time of the Pharoahs. The spacing of the rings gave you a perspective on the scope of history. For instance, right now CSA is just concluding a section on the French Revolution, which is much closer to the present day, than say, the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire.
Neil and Kelly got some gymnastic exercise scrambling on an exposed pipe and fallen trees.
We walked right through the Huckleberry camp ground (and had lunch there on the way back), which reminds me it would be fun to go camping again.
We made it to our destination easily. Neil was unimpressed by the falls. They’re not as spectacular as the ones in the middle of the park, true, but them Sempervirens Falls isn’t 12 miles away from a park entrance, either.
