Up,down and across still extend in all the usual directions, but the distance between their visible limits is a bit deceiving at the Grand Canyon. At some points down is a drop of over a mile (the view back up from the canyon floor is one I aim to hike down to someday soon!). Width of the Canyon at any point ranges between 4 and 18 miles. There is no “stone’s throw” across that one!
Hance Rapid (pictured at right from Desert View) is rated an 8 in difficulty on a 1 to 10 scale. This mile long stretch of river features the Canyon’s greatest single drop. Thirty feet doesn’t sound like much in a place where everything else seems to be measured in miles, but in a kayak? That could be excessively thrilling!
The first time I stepped into the hushed shadows of Muir Woods, dusk had already stretched one long arm around the towering trees.
Zach and I had spent most of that day on bikes, riding from Fisherman’s Wharf on down to the Golden Gate Bridge and then across and up the road to Sausalito. When we met up with his dad back in San Francisco in the late afternoon, we decided that there was just enough time to get to Muir Woods. Everyone had cleared out by the time we arrived, and there was “just enough time”. Not a moment more.
On my second visit in 2008, my friend and I arrived earlier in the afternoon to a more crowded park, but the stately Coastal Redwood trees seemed to inspire a “quiet” in those walking the trails beneath them. There was none of the scampering and screaming one sometimes encounters on flat, public trails. Instead, there seemed to be an attitude of reverence… an appreciation of being out of one’s usual “element”.
With the tallest redwood stretching 258 feet above the forest floor and the oldest one dating back at least 1200 years, there is plenty to inspire awe within this national monument. President Roosevelt segregated the land in 1908; its name honors naturalist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and a pivotal figure in the establishment of our national park system.
Further inland are Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks – to be explored on a future trip and the Mariposa Grove of Yosemite National Park. The California Coastal Redwood, found only within a narrow band along the Pacific coast, is the tallest tree in the world. The Giant Sequoias are known for their massive diameters.
Updated from January 11, 2009.
Muir Woods National Monument (Mill Valley, CA) Tallest trees in the world: Coastal Redwoods
Mill Valley, CA 94941-2696
(415) 388-2595/(415) 388-2596
That they are old is not enough. Age is an effortless achievement -just ask any woman over forty. But here also is grace. A simple yet steadfast strength. The presence of a peace that expands from within one’s own self to embrace the very sanctuary that seems to call it forth.
The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias provides perspective on a grand scale. One of three protected sequoia groves within Yosemite, Mariposa at the south-western edge of the park is the largest and most visited. Unlike the coastal redwoods of Muir Woods, these Sequoias are more solitary. The drier inland zone results in less undergrowth and clustering, making it easier to imagine unique personas for the individually named trees.
Walking through, the sensation is similar to being in the presence of stalwart timeless heroes. Some will fall, but even the decay of the fallen is deliberate due to a bacteria that suppresses the qualities of tannic acid in the wood. The “Fallen Monarch” (pictured at right) has lain in state for centuries, and the trees around it will grow for centuries more.
