On his first Monday, after dropping me at work, Sean drove out for a gander at Big Basin State Park. It was a stunning, sunny day. Marc, my colleague and mentor, loaned us his State Parks Pass, so it was a great opportunity to make use of it.
Big Basin is about an hour's drive north from Santa Cruz. Aside from it's groovy name, it's famous for it's "Skyline to Sea" trail, which is an approximately 40km hike from the mountains down to the beach. While Sean wasn't quite up for that (it's typically done as an overnighter - CAMPING!!!), he did manage to check out some of the smaller walks around the ranger station.
Although of course I wasn't there, I suspect we could be waiting a while before Sean musters the linguistical fortitude to blog about his experiences. Meanwhile, you'll have to make do with my second-hand commentary.
Okay, so here it looks as though Sean has arrived......
.....and found the Redwood Trail:
He saw many tall redwoods!
Some of them had hollow parts to their trunks.
Here is the "Mother of the Forest": 15ft 3in diameter, 70ft circumference, 329 ft high:
More redwoods. I love how their vertical striations slowly twist around the trunk.
A cluster, presumably from a single parent tree:
Pretty meadow:
As promised in the title - Sean encountered loads of banana slugs in the park. I hadn't checked to find any in Santa Cruz, because it was much warmer than when I was there last year. But it was cooler up at Big Basin, so the Banana Slugs were boogeying.
Hurrah for the iconic Santa Cruz mollusc!!
More wildlife: Sean is clearly not jaded by too many squirrel encounters:
And he must have enjoyed this pretty waterfall:
Interesting growth on a trunk:
Intense deer encounter! Deer leaping fence!
Deer hiding in the wilderness!
Deer munching!
And last, but not least, Carpark Squirrel!
Well, it looks as though Sean has had a lovely day amidst the redwoods and the miscellany of slimey and fluffy wildlife.
This has been Ace Reporter Nat, for News on Behalf of Sleeping-In-Sean.
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