Portola Redwood Park, Mar. 24, 2001

Portola Redwood Park, Mar. 24, 2001

The forecast promised a rainy weekend, but we woke up to a deep blue sky and dramatic clouds formations. Portola Redwood Park was one of the lucky few that actually contains virgin redwoods, which escaped the lumber company's saw during the last turn of the century. We were practicing our newly acquired bookish knowledge, to distinquish between a douglas fir and a redwood. We were also able to identify Tan Oak and Madrone. Not bad for three programming monkeys. :) To see more pictures from our hike, check out Gui and Matthew's page!


Beautiful barks of the redwood.	Classic shot.	What is it like to be old and wise? Try living for 1,500 years!	Pioneers-wanna-be.	Our guide book promised many creeks along the trail, and even a waterfall at the end. But the creek along the trail was dry all the way, we started to lose hope for a waterfall... till we saw this wooden watertank. Water that was leaking from the tank formed a small stream. ;)

Star-like white flowers in the misty rain.	A REAL stream!!! Later we had to cross it.	Pescadero Creek - so very clear.	Colorful rocks look exceptional clean in the rain.	new leaves! Isn't Spring time lovely?

Not sure what these snake-looking plants will grow into (fern?).	At last! A waterfall!	Lovely couple.	Hiding under the redwood leaves.	Fern!

Redwood Sorrel	The rain was heavier now, we pulled on our poncho. The forest was immediately transferred into a Chinese Martial Art movie, and us The KongFu Masters!	Interesting rock formation by the creek, which we had to cross yet one more time on our return trip. It was not easy to walk on slippery rocks in the rain without getting wet, even though it was just a small creek. A family of four stared at us throughout the entire crossing. I'm not sure whether they were fascinated by our "superior" balance or our KongFu Master outfit. :)