Nature Journal- Exploring the Redwoods

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The first thing that comes to mind about the Redwood Forrest is WOW! My family and I are staying in Sonoma, CA for the weekend and today we went and explored the Armstrong Redwood Forrest, which is a small pocket of the much larger (and further) Redwoods. The trees of this forest are up to 2000 years old and their size truly shows their age. The park service did a great job of marking some of the oldest trees and explaining their age and size. I felt so small standing in this forest full of giants. I stood at the base of one the giants and looked straight up but couldn’t even see the top. It was over 300 feet tall! There was so much history that can be seen just by looking at a cross section of one of the trees. You can tell if it was a wet year or a dry year. The rings even tell you how much growth occurred, and which years fires have occurred. It’s amazing how much nature can tell you just by examining it closely. It really brought me perspective on the sheer magnitude of the age and size of this forest. These trees were here before the US was even a country and before CA was even a state. They were here before humans had discovered them, and they will continue to be here thousands of years into the future. This idea can be applied to all nature, and not only just this forest. Nature has always been here and will continue to be here long after humans are gone. I think it’s vital to step back and see the big picture every once in a while. Today, the giants of the Redwood Forest helped me do just that.  



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