101 Places to See Before You're 12 - A Forest Canopy

A Forest Canopy

The second place we went to in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was the Muir Woods National Monument.  This was a really fun end of day excursion.  We would have loved to hike more in this area and see more.

**If you've seen last year's Rise of the Planet of the Apes - James Franco takes Cesar to play in the redwood forest - that's Muir Woods National Monument.

We read a couple of books that mentioned John Muir when we were getting ready for our trip.  He introduced Teddy Roosevelt to the Yosemite Valley.  He and Ralph Waldo Emerson were good friends.  He was a naturalist and author who started the Sierra Club.  He famously walked 1000 miles from Indianapolis to Florida in 1867. He has a number of ties to Stanford University.  California celebrates John Muir Day on April 21st.

I love how not far from San Francisco the landscape changes to beautiful mountains and lush vegetation.

This part of the country is absolutely gorgeous.  We all enjoyed our time walking the trails here.

More on "Old-Growth Forests" in another post soon.

The forest canopy presented me with all sorts of photography "opportunities".  It was beautifully shadowed, dark, and stunning here.  I really got to play with my camera settings!

The rings show this tree was more than 1000 years old.  It highlights important events over the last 1000 years to give you a sense of how large the tree was when Columbus sailed for example.

Always time for some dance moves

The redwoods are beautiful (and really large!)

From the Book:

#8 - A Forest Canopy

Looking up from the forest floor at the dappled sunlight filtering down through a canopy of leaves is a beautiful experience.  But can you imagine what the view is like from the top, what it must be like to see as the birds see, soaring above the treetops?  In a few rare and wonderful places, you can do just that.  Climb to the top of a forest, and then walk on a swinging bridge through the trees or zip along the forest canopy on a harness and wire, like a bird in flight.  In the few years they've been studying the forest canopy, scientists have discovered tons of new species.  It's like a whole secret world up there, and being among the treetops is an experience you'll never forget.