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Late friday morning, we had to get down to the ferry dock to catch the ferry to larkspur, where Ethora, her husband tudgedelta (no relation ;-) and their daughter Samantha picked us up to go to Muir Woods. When we drove up into the hills for the park, we missed a turnoff. I mention this because we got to see some great scenery. I love looking out over the mountains to the ocean, and I love those winding roads in the forests, with those nearly sheer cliffs at the side of the road. But we made it to the park before too long.
When we got to the park, Cyn and I had to make our hosts wait for us while we ate our lunches. Samantha has a lot of energy, but she's patient and didn't seem to mind too much.
The parking lots were so crowded that we almost didn't have a place to park, but we must have come in near the end of the rush. Near the beginning, there were a lot of people, but I wouldn't call it crowded, and the trees are so big, people don't really get in the way of your view. Before too long, though, the people had thinned out.
There was an open area where people were gathered around a ranger who was giving a talk about the trees.
Notice the person on the trail behind the tree.
This second one doesn't really show the size of the trees accurately, but I like the shot anyway. The first one doesn't really give you a good feel for their size either, but it's really hard to do. Come to think of it, it's hard to get a good feel for their size when you're standing there next to them. That maple tree in your back yard isn't there to compare. And you don't really see the tops of these trees, either. Aside from that, they're smaller than you might think. Most people have seen pictures of the Sequoias, and while the redwoods are the tallest trees, the sequoias are the largest trees. They're the ones you've seen with tunnels carved into them. There are quite a variety of sizes (ages) of redwoods in the park. The ones that you see in my pictures that are really big (like the ones by the rangers), are some of the biggest ones.
When we got to the far end of the path, we climbed a hill, and took a different trail back. We saw only a few people up there, and a pair of deer.
This one's for hilltop. Yes, Stever, that's a California redwood burl. No, it wouldn't have fit in the back of your truck. For reference, it's a good 25 feet off the ground.
I had a lot of trouble getting good pictures. It was fairly dim in the woods, and though I had my camera set on ISO800 or sometimes 1600, I was still usually shooting 1/4 to 1/20 of a second. You just can't hold a camera still at that shutter speed. (The lens is only an f4.) You can see how blurry the the second one with the ranger is. And the one two down from there, you can see a ghost image of ethora's finger, from me moving the camera. I don't know what was up with that. The little camera did better because it has image stabilization. I was often bracing the camera on the fences, but even some of them aren't very sharp. And there's one of those which was going to be a great shot, but there are people in it, and they're blurry because they were walking.
When we got to the park, Cyn and I had to make our hosts wait for us while we ate our lunches. Samantha has a lot of energy, but she's patient and didn't seem to mind too much.
The parking lots were so crowded that we almost didn't have a place to park, but we must have come in near the end of the rush. Near the beginning, there were a lot of people, but I wouldn't call it crowded, and the trees are so big, people don't really get in the way of your view. Before too long, though, the people had thinned out.
There was an open area where people were gathered around a ranger who was giving a talk about the trees.
Notice the person on the trail behind the tree.
This second one doesn't really show the size of the trees accurately, but I like the shot anyway. The first one doesn't really give you a good feel for their size either, but it's really hard to do. Come to think of it, it's hard to get a good feel for their size when you're standing there next to them. That maple tree in your back yard isn't there to compare. And you don't really see the tops of these trees, either. Aside from that, they're smaller than you might think. Most people have seen pictures of the Sequoias, and while the redwoods are the tallest trees, the sequoias are the largest trees. They're the ones you've seen with tunnels carved into them. There are quite a variety of sizes (ages) of redwoods in the park. The ones that you see in my pictures that are really big (like the ones by the rangers), are some of the biggest ones.
When we got to the far end of the path, we climbed a hill, and took a different trail back. We saw only a few people up there, and a pair of deer.
This one's for hilltop. Yes, Stever, that's a California redwood burl. No, it wouldn't have fit in the back of your truck. For reference, it's a good 25 feet off the ground.
I had a lot of trouble getting good pictures. It was fairly dim in the woods, and though I had my camera set on ISO800 or sometimes 1600, I was still usually shooting 1/4 to 1/20 of a second. You just can't hold a camera still at that shutter speed. (The lens is only an f4.) You can see how blurry the the second one with the ranger is. And the one two down from there, you can see a ghost image of ethora's finger, from me moving the camera. I don't know what was up with that. The little camera did better because it has image stabilization. I was often bracing the camera on the fences, but even some of them aren't very sharp. And there's one of those which was going to be a great shot, but there are people in it, and they're blurry because they were walking.
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no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 05:54 am (UTC)From:V walked through the redwoods as a child and remembers the grandness vividly.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 09:52 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 12:06 pm (UTC)From::)
I've been into experimenting with low-light conditions lately and have found the tripod to be invaluable as is image stabilization.
BUT I like these pictures. I've never even been to CA and the redwoods have always fascinated me. The burls are impressive!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 12:50 pm (UTC)From:I remember thinking when I was a kid... "the lowest branch on this thing is bigger than our old maple tree" looking at one of the big Giants in Kings Cyn, cali.
The redwoods, though, are different. Even most of the tallest (that aren't in groomed forests) have branches that droop almost to the ground, and you can "climb" a limb up to the trunk and then go up the tree. They sort of form a web-work with their roots, holding each-other up. They really need water though, the redwood forests are rain forests of a sort.
I'm glad you got to see Muir. It's one of my favorite spots.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 04:06 pm (UTC)From:I really, really wanted to take them there, but there was no possible way with the schedule. I'm amazed they made it to Muir. At Montgomery there is a path, though not a boardwalk, but humans are free to wander among the trees. We try to go every year when we go to Orr Hot Springs. I love the forest in winter!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-02 04:23 pm (UTC)From: