BEYOND BIGFOOT: To ask one of California's iconic supernatural symbols to step to one side, on his own home turf, would not be polite, and so we wouldn't dare do such a rude thing. For when one begins to talk about the redwoods and Halloween and eerie adventures to be had deep among the Big Trees, one will naturally give Bigfoot -- or Mr. Foot, to show some courtesy -- his most deserved due. He's a presence of the most major sort from Humboldt County on up into Washington state, and his visage is seen on everything from magnets to t-shirts around Northern California. So we do tip our hat and pay our respect to this famous figure, even as we give the spotlight to another mysterious part of the woods in Humboldt County: The Monster Tree, and all of the notable redwoods that grow into ghoulish and fabulous forms. Like clouds, it is quite easy to find faces and images within the barkscape and leafy branches of many a shrub and tree, but the redwoods, with their impressive stature and impressive size give us more reason to look (also, they've been here a really, really long time, so history lends some lore to what we see on and inside a redwood, too). Have you wandered into Redwood National Park lately? Then you might have spied...
THE SCABBY TREE: That and the Twisted Snag and the Monster Tree can all be found along Berry Glen Trail, a trail that doesn't wend for too long or too deep into the woods. It's just 3.5 miles, and it "connects the popular Lady Bird Johnson Grove with the Elk Meadow viewing area on Highway 101." Not only does it make for a quintessentially peaceful ramble, the best kind of ramble among the redwoods, but it sends imaginations reeling with the knobby and character-filled trees spied along the way. Even Bigfoot, on his nocturnal strolls, must admire these old beauties and their story-inspiring structural quirks.
THERE'S SO MUCH MORE... to admire in the redwoods, like the albino redwoods located south of Eureka. So atmospheric is this beautiful stretch of our state that even some of the flora can tell a frightful tale, if we pause and peer closer. As for protecting the redwoods, and all of that gorgeousness and occasional ghoulishness? Save the Redwoods League is a fine place to start.
