After all of the busyness of showing Newt a good time, Bilbo and I were ready for some lazy days! We spent the next week finishing up the television series Deadwood, a historical fiction western set during the development of the Deadwood, SD, settlement. The main characters include the legendary Wild Bill Hickok, Sheriff Seth Bullock, and Calamity Jane. If you like westerns this show is fun, but be forewarned that this is an HBO series and may require some eye covering or fast forwarding. If you are interested in the history of the Deadwood settlement and its place in our nation’s history, click here to check out the modern day city’s website.
By the time Saturday rolled around we were still feeling a bit beat, so we decided to stay close by. Lucky for us, close by is pretty awesome and includes Redwood National Park! The agenda for our Saturday in the park was a hike down Tall Tree Trail to see, well, Tall Tree…and other tall trees. The trail to Tall Tree Loop is an easy incline down into a valley; which turns into a not so easy incline back up to your car.
Along the trail we passed through a tunneled fallen tree…
Were surprised by a massive mushroom…
And saw some very large cross sections.
We walked among many tall trees on our way to the valley floor, but still had to make the Tall Tree Loop to see THE trail’s namesake.
There it is. This tree encouraged activists to begin the process to preserve the redwood groves of northern CA. It isn’t the tallest in the park, but it did play a role in the area’s history.
Bilbo loved the moss that covered the trees, making them look like fuzzy monsters.
On our way out of the park, we stopped at an overlook of a previously logged grove that has been restored by the National Park System. You could definitely see the difference between the affected and unaffected areas in the valley.
With yet another week of rest under our belts, the next weekend found us back on the road and looking for adventure. The snowy road led us to the Squaw Valley USA ski resort in Tahoe City.
These slopes were home to the 1960 Winter Olympics, but they didn’t see any Olympic-grade activity during our visit. Bilbo, in his great and loving patience, stood by my side as I tumbled down the less than 1% incline in the beginners’ area. Don’t confuse this with the bunny slope. It is actually the precursor to the bunny slope where parents lead their little preschool-aged children through ski drills and Bilbo tries to teach me to stay on my feet. A daunting task.
By the end of the day I was able to stop and only fell about 50% of the time…a definite success compared to previous skiing attempts. Feeling optimistic, we packed up and set out for a drive around Lake Tahoe.
In between CA and NV we stopped at a scenic view point with a really neat granite model of the lake’s shape and depth.
Then we were on our way to Reno (only an hour from Tahoe City) to visit REI. During this trip we saw the city skyline by day. In a later post, we’ll have some pictures of the “Biggest Little City” by night.
Our drive back to Ferndale took us through Davis, CA, where we spent the night. The next day, we took a quick driving tour of University of California Davis on our way out of town.
It “just so happened” that we were back in Petaluma around lunch time, so we made another stop by the Lagunitas Brewing Company.
Bilbo tried a few different beers and we had some amazing veggie sandwiches!
Bilbo got lucky that day because the brewery tour was happening while we were there. I stayed to hold down the table (and eat), but he got a very thorough and entertaining tour with Lagunitas signature charm.
Full bellies capped off our weekend and had us ready to tackle the remainder of our drive back to Ferndale. Keep an eye out for our next post when we explore the “World Famous” Avenue of the Giants.
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