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2015 Trip Chronicles: Contents
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park 5/26
Del Norte Redwoods State Park 5/27
Myrtle Creek Botanical Area 5/27
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park 5/28
Mackerricher State Beach 5/29
Jug Handle State Reserve 5/29
As one who usually wakes at dawn, I rose early on Tuesday, May 26, 2015, rearranged gear in the Forester, then drove off for the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park headquarters area that is part of Redwood National Park, where I was the first person in the parking lot on the day after the holiday. The skies were nicely overcast with a marine layer as forecast, and I hoped that diffuse light conditions would at least last through midday hours. It was also dead calm, which was necessary to sharply image tree branches and vegetation, so my optimism was high. Prairie Creek arguably has the finest redwood forests in the world.
he unknowns would be whether I would find any colorful elements within these forests to complement the otherwise limited greens, browns, and blacks. For that, my strategy was to hike trails where wildflowers are more common. The most sought-after situation is to find blooming rhododendron near redwoods. However, few areas around Prairie Creek have those understory trees. There are generally few showy wildflower species in redwood forests, with western trillium the most showy species, but most of those plants bloom in late March and April, so most I might see will have already gone to seed. This was might first time working these redwood forests with a digital camera as I used my 4x5 view camera during previous visits.
The heavy, chilly fog air and overcast push inland up stream canyons from the Pacific during night hours and then burn off from warming, evaporating sunlight above by late morning. On days when low-pressure troughs are passing to the north in Oregon, overcast may remain all day. Fog generated over the ocean waters is initially at sea level but evolves over daily cycles of sunlight heating to rise above the sea as a low overcast layer, which often is at elevations as high as the hills and trees of the North Coast redwood forests. Generally, the best light for redwood photography, providing dramatic illumination, is when trees are at the same level as the cloud fog, with only a thin cloud deck above that. In other words, when a cloud deck is too thick and above a forest, light within trees tends to look dull and dim. But when fog is immersed between trunks, it can add a dreamy quality.
An additional need for those wishing to make large, detailed images with focus stacking is a lack of breezes, much less winds, lest the branches of redwoods and understory plants wobble about impossibly, which results in blurry elements. And that was something I'd carefully surveyed the wunderground dot com 10-day forecasts with before pulling the trigger on the road trip. The usual situation is that breezes are minimal at sunrise after cool, moist marine air during nights has moved inland as far as topography allows, and then stabilizes. Then, with heating over land, an air mass warms, making it lighter. That causes colder, heavier marine air to be drawn inland again beneath the lighter air, which increases breezes till about mid-afternoon before the cycle repeats. On clear sunny days, once sunlight beams down through forest canopies, light becomes much too hopelessly contrasty for serious photography. On such days, there is a brief period from dawn through sunrise or at the end of the day at sunset on treetops where images via skylight can be made.
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I chose to explore up a trail I won't name herein, following ridge top areas because that is where there tends to be more wildflowers. About a half hour into my journey, I reached ridgeline areas where indeed wildflowers were more common. The thin fog cloud deck was nicely coming and going within the upper canopies of the redwoods. I set up to work a branched Solomon's seal, Maianthemum racemosum, with flash, which resulted in a striking, contrasting graphic. In the enlarged vertical slice view, one can appreciate the white branching stem structures holding flowers with dainty white filaments and yellow anthers. Do you see the 2 spiders and their webs? Here and there are little white water drops from the fog mist.
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Further along found a section of trail with more red clintonia aka red bead lily, Clintonia andrewsiana, than I've seen anywhere else in my travels. That was particularly fortuitous because they have wonderful deep red flowers in an environment where most wildflower species are white. Adding to their beauty are large, shiny leaves in the 3 basal-leaf lily family tradition. In coast redwood, Sequoia sempervernis, redwood forest views, including trails themselves, are more often the most aesthetic subjects because otherwise the understories are too dense and high with plants for room for open spaces in front of a camera. So a strategy is to use the shape of the brown trail as the base of other frame elements.
In the above image, I chose a section with 3 short back-and-forth sinuous bends. Fog had just moved into the background. Given the redwood forest matter made up primarily of fallen needles and their small branches, the trail surfaces add a rich reddish-brown element with many small roots on the surface for graphic interest. Unlike their relative, the Sierra's giant sequoia, ironically considering the common names, most coastal redwood trees do not have a red outer bark. Rather, bark is dull browns and gray due to weathering, topped with greens of moss, fungi, and lichen. Notice the yellow-green-hued moss just outside the footpath in the foreground. Behind the first bend are the same branched Solomon's seal plants as in the previous image above. The scene also shows several trillium, with one visible in the enlarged vertical slice view right slice. The trillium is the plant with 3 large leaves. In the center slice below the Solomon's seal are white-hued starflower, Trientalis latifolia. At the top right of the frame are shiny, somewhat orange-tinted leaves of one of the most common redwood understory shrubs, California huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, part of the heath family, the new leaves of which tend to be a reddish orange.
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This next image above has similar elements, including a red clintonia plant right in the center of the trail, which shows the wonderful design one often finds in these enchanting pathways. Again, notice how the color of the large redwood trunk on the right is not at all red. One sometimes sees photos of trees in the park where misguided photographers have ridiculously manipulated trunk bark color via Photoshop hue sliders. The short, small green plants all about the forest floor are redwood sorrel. At the center, against a shady background, is a tall branched Solomon's seal, Maianthemum racemosum, and below it, starflowers. After my 8-mile morning ramble, I drove north into Del Norte County, where I found familiar areas with rhododendron appearing about a week away from peak bloom, and in any case there were considerably fewer blooms than in 2014 when they were unusually abundant. That night was spent parked along the Smith River at a familiar location.
The next morning Wednesday, May 27, 2015 I was up early and drove south into Del Norte Coastal Redwoods State Park, which is also part of Redwood National Park. I stopped roadside at a well-known rhododendron area just north of the Damnation Creek Trailhead. I recognized web acquaintance Michael, who lives near Yosemite and has an exceptional body of work. He was surveying prospective subjects for an upcoming photography workshop with his wife Claudia. By happenstance, we had also seen each other years before at Carrizo Plain in the Temblor Range. A few other photographers were also well at work up the trail there. After exchanging a few tips on what I'd seen the previous day at Prairie Creek, I declined to take any images because I already had better images with more blooms taken with my 4x5 in 2014. Instead, I drove south to the DeMartin section of the Coastal Trail that I was familiar with from past years and headed south with hopes of better rhododendron subjects. Like Tuesday, the sky was nicely overcast. The area is close to the ocean and lush due to the frequent moist fog. Thus, it is a good trail to find fungi and moss subjects. The image below is a fascinatingly shaped species that was growing out of a downed trunk. Reminds me of the space-traveling Crystal Entity in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode with the evil Dana twin Lorr.
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Further down the trail below, I took out my Sony SEL55210 telephoto zoom, which I don't use often, and shot the modest image below of a rhododendron unusually high up in the tree canopies with fog in the background.
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Then saw the below large patch of striking slime mold called witch's butter, Tremella aurantia or t. mesenterica growing atop another small moss-covered trunk. An opportunity for extra magnification, so I pulled out both extension tubes to add onto the 60mm Sigma. At the time, I thought this was a fungus stuck in one spot, but not so. Formerly classified as fungi, but actually these large single-celled organisms, which can combine. Upon DNA analysis, they were put into a new kingdom of life termed Protista. I'll hypothesize that they support panspermia, arriving on Earth after dominant DNA life forms were already established. Even weirder, I recently discovered that there are electromagnetic waves throughout their protoplasmic bodies that seem to give them a level of intelligence. They move around like the creature in the sci-fi movie "The Blob," changing shape slowly as they search for food. That is why one should never toss a sleeping bag on the ground to sleep overnight in redwood forests, haha.
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After a couple of miles of mediocre rhododendron conditions, I turned around. Along the way, I got really close again to a redwood sorrel leaf atop moss full of fog droplets. The wonderful triple heart-shaped leaves have a surprising red to reddish-purple hue underneath, facing towards the ground.
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In the afternoon, I drove further inland into Six Rivers National Forest, then I hiked another few miles up the fascinating Myrtle Creek Botanical Trail that did have numbers of both Pacific rhododendron and its cousin, western azalea. Also along the trail, I found the rare endangered trillium species, brook wakerobin, Pseudotrillium rivale, the fifth image above, and numbers of the deep purple douglas iris, Iris douglasiana below.
The rest of the day, working areas along the Smith River were relatively unproductive until near sunset, when I found myself back roadside north of the Damnation Creek Trailhead. US101 has a north-to-south orientation in that section, with views of redwoods due west. Thus, the fog was pushing in through the trees with filtered sunlight sourced from that same direction. The resulting light between trees was stronger than usual overhead overcast conditions. The image at the top, OG04108-04124-1x2h.jpg, a 1 by 2 stitch blend composed of 17 focus stack blended shots of a single Pacific rhododendron, Rhododendron macrophyllum, tree in front of redwoods, is one of my best ever images of these subjects. Also in the image are California huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, with orange-hued leaf tips, and thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus, showing white flowers, and they are much more distinct in the enlarged vertical slice view.
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This next image above is from the same area along US101 as the noted image at the top and was shot just after that work in darkening dusk light. The large redwood at the center has a burned trunk and is indeed tilted. The large rhododendron bush in front of the trunk had dozens of blooms when I visited in 2014. It is late afternoon after sun-warmed air inland stops expanding, allowing heavy cool marine air to gravity flow back up against this mountainous section of coast, providing backgrounds for these foggy redwood trees. Photography complete, I drove back down US101 to the Orick area at the same location I used to overnight on Monday. I could not help but think that these last two dark environment images would have been very difficult to have worked with my 4x5 view camera. Thus, it was a verification of expectations I had using the A6000 for the first time in these forests.
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The next morning Thursday, May 28, 2015 I drove north into Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and took the horribly dusty gravel Davidson Road out to the coast, then embarked up into the park's most famous feature, Fern Canyon. Once again I had fine overcast light and worked 4 subjects, one of which, above, a 2x2 stitch blend, using 30 focus stack blended shots, is similar to a 4x5 image I'd shot in 2014 but at a different spot in the unique plumb vertical wall canyon. These are five finger ferns, Adiantum aleuticum, with Home Creek running below. The stream runs through the relatively level, stony bottom of the canyon. During powerful winter storms, the stream volume may increase greatly, cutting a vertical slit through the soft alluvial and marine sediments. Dripping seeps flowing out of the sides of the strata splash down, adding to its charm. Note that visitors will be wading through ankle-deep sections of the stream at several spots, so wear appropriate footwear when visiting.
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I continued up the trail out of the canyon east, then explored north onto the lightly traveled Friendship Trail. Instead of redwoods, the dominant conifer along immediate coastal locations is Sitka spruce that better tolerates the salty atmosphere. The species with interesting trunk bases is nearly as large as redwoods, and the bark on the trees is, in fact, slightly red, while the bark of the redwoods is not red at all, though the inner wood is quite red. Soon the spruce disappeared, and I was once again in a sea of ferns and redwoods. Given the cool, foggy marine weather, there were still a few western trillium, Trillium ovatum, blooming. Above the trillium were fronds of a western sword fern, Polystuchum muniturn.
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Along the ridge top where the trail routed between two large redwoods, I set up the above shot. By late morning, I was back down to the trailhead, with a number of vehicles now parked at the trailhead. Generally, I was a bit surprised by the lack of strong subjects along this trail close to the coast.
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Before leaving the Redwood Parks, I wanted to capture some close-up images of beach flowers, so near the south end of Bluff Beach Road I ventured out into the sand dunes and was surprised to find a patch of coast sand verbena, Abronia umbellata, per the image above. Note the dark black salt-and-pepper beach sand one finds along these coasts. The beach along Gold Bluffs runs for miles, and even on weekends long sections are empty of people. These surf-cleaned dark beach sands readily absorb sunlight even on cloudy days, adding infrared heat to what otherwise may be coolish temperatures. Back at the Forester, I found my left rear tire totally flat. Just a few weeks before, I had new tires installed at a Firestone Tire shop. A potentially very disruptive situation in a remote location.
I grabbed my hand tire pump and managed to pump the tire up to about 22 pounds per square inch without any obvious leak. Using a hand pump to pump up modern tires is a strenuous pain. Drove out over the dusty dirt road back to US101, stopping every short while to check the condition of the tire. Continued to the Redwood National Park main visitor center at the beach at the mouth of Redwood Creek. With my small tire pressure gauge, I measured that the pressure was down to 18 psi. So indeed it was still leaking, but not grossly, so I pumped a bit more air back in. Eureka was about 40 miles to the south and would have tire businesses able to take care of the leak. So I headed south while continuing to monitor the tire getting out every few miles.
In Eureka, this tourist visiting their region stopped at the Les Schwab Tires store and, though they were quite busy, they considerately soon began performing the tire patch process. What appeared to be a stone-type puncture was found. However, after removing the tire, I found the inner wall had been damaged. My suspicion is the flat occurred on the gravel Davidson Road, and because of all the bumpiness, I had not noticed the tire going flat, so I drove it at least a half dozen miles against the rim; that was enough to possibly ruin it. For warranty reasons, they would need to put 2 same-model tires on at a time. Instead, I made the unwise decision for them to sell me just one vaguely similar tire, putting it on the bad tire's rim, and mounted my spare.
The small spare is only fit to drive short distances and not on freeways. I drove off a half mile to a park-and-ride lot where I got out the jack, removed the spare, then installed the new tire. Of course, all the above totally disrupted my tightly packed vehicle full of gear that had been stacked to the ceiling in the more forward vehicle areas. So unloaded all the gear onto the asphalt, then put it all back in, which took time. By late afternoon, I continued south on US01. I didn't notice any weird drivetrain issues and eventually reached Humboldt Redwoods State Park, out about $120 bucks total. A couple of months later, the same axle developed a bad wheel bearing, so a few hundred dollars more down a rathole. Coincidence? After mulling over the situation, some days went back to Firestone and replaced both tires on the axle for another $250. Thus, in hindsight, a rather unwise, costly, embarrassing, frugal backfiring choice on my part.
After surveying conditions at that park, including taking a couple of short hikes and noting its droughty look, I decided spending time there the next morning would likely be unproductive. So instead, I continued south on US101, then at Garberville vectored off over the mountains on California Highway 1. By the time I reached the Westport area, it was dark. On the sly, I pulled over at a coastal pullout that didn't have any NO PARKING signs and spent a quiet night.
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I awoke dawn Friday, May 29, 2015, and didn't waste time motoring south down Highway 1. At Mackerricher State Beach, I got out and hiked the dunes for an hour unproductively. Another day of coastal overcast without sun, but now breezes had picked up. I explored a paved road over the Coast Range a few miles to find where the edge of sunshine reached, which turned out to be well inland. Continuing south, I soon reached Fort Bragg, where I went out to the well-known Glass Beach I'd always managed to not find time to visit during previous coastal road trips. Mackerricher State Park had expanded, annexing northern shore areas within the city limits. The coastal bluff meadows had fine areas of usual coastal wildflower species instead of being beat up by decades of foot traffic, which surprised me. Also, the shore areas were rather more scenic than expected, though that would not be something I'd bother with given the overcast. Despite being just a Friday and overcast, the large parking lot was nearly full. A new set of fancy paved shore pathways and steps down onto the beach had recently been built. Down into the cove were a couple dozen people walking about, looking at a mix of stony, surf-smoothed stones and areas of smoothed, polished glass.
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The aesthetic quality of this kind of subject was even better than I'd expected, which left me with regret that I had not checked this out years earlier, as I have a large body of work of surf-polished stone close-ups that I have never made public. These subjects would complement that work nicely. After returning home and web researching, I was surprised to find surf-polished glass pieces had a significant base of enthusiast artisans across the world. As the site of the decades-old Fort Bragg city dump, where the natural stone-grinding phenomenon takes decades to shape and smooth raw broken glass, it is now one of the best locations in the world for such glass.
Accordingly, glass in this limited area is continually picked over for anything of unique shape or color (especially blue), although, being a state park, such activity is illegal and is in fact signed so right along the stairway. A gal picking glass related to the white glass; per my image above, were milk bottles. The dark orange-brown ones were likely Coke bottles, and the green ones were wine bottles. Some of those picking up glass were putting them into Ziploc bags, which showed they were familiar with collecting stones there and obviously also aware visitors could do so without being harassed by authorities. Although members of the state Coastal Commission and some environmentalists would have a fit, this person would approve of some limited, authorized to legally do so coastal communities of rocky shore areas purposely dumping broken glass onto such shores that would be opened to the public after several years of natural wave action polishing. And then would allow people to collect small quantities, though not for commercial purposes.
South of Fort Bragg, I stopped at Jug Handle State Reserve and hiked out onto the bluff meadows to work some wildflower close-ups despite the now strong winds because part of those meadows are sheltered behind trees. Below, a 9-image focus stack blend with my 60mm and extension tubes under a diffuser is witch's teeth, Lotus formosissimus.
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The meadows have large clumps of douglas iris, Iris douglasiana, so I took my time locating a well-shaped specimen, and then carefully captured this deep purple beauty below that required 7 images for focus stack blending. Before this software era, getting such deep depth of field for subjects with this much 3-dimensional form was utterly impossible. Please look at the detail in the enlarged vertical slice view.
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Northwesterly winds continue to increase in the afternoon, so I didn't linger much as I made my way further south. I checked out familiar areas at Salt Point State Park that looked disappointingly droughty for late May, with large fields of quite brown rattlesnake grass, and continued through Sonoma Coast State Beach into Bodega Bay before parking out on a familiar rural road inland overnight.
Saturday morning, May 30, I visited a familiar beach while hoping the overcast would clear. Found an upside-down crab shell missing some legs that humorously looked like some alien head. By late morning, the overcast was still hugging the coast, so I made the final white-knuckle freeway leg home into Marin areas, over the San Rafael Bridge, down into the ugly traffic about the I80 maze in Oakland and down I880 to my home in the South Bay.
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2015 Trip Chronicles: Contents
