eureka/redwood national forest

Our last stop was in Eureka, which I didn't find a particulary compelling city (very gray, gloomy, foggy), but it was our base point from which to explore Redwood National Forest, which was fantastic. I've always wanted to see the giant redwoods, and indeed we did on our 10-mile roundtrip trek.

The first half was amazing (see pictures below): I don't even know how to describe how grand, how majestic, how quiet it was out there. The destination point of our hike was a place called Fern Canyon, which is, basically a small creek in the middle of a canyon surrounded by ferns (okay, my descriptive capacities are failing me here). It was so worth all the pain and agony to get there because I've never seen anything quite like it. Our return hike was very silent: head down, one foot in front of another, both of us with the expression on our faces, "When will this end?" At dinner later that night, we both practically inhaled our food.

We want to go back, just to take better pictures!

our Victorian-style Bed and Breakfast inn, The Ship's Inn

just for scale

(i was behind byron most of the hike)

fern canyon (still behind him)

almost at the end, hence the smiles