Redwoods: Seen one, seen 'em all?

I spent this past Sunday walking through one of the local, well known Redwood groves in one of our National Parks. This is, after all, REDWOOD COUNTRY. I love Yosemite and the other National Parks. That woody, smoky smell will forever remind me of our vacations each summer in Yosemite. New to the area, I figured I'd get acquainted with some of the local sights. It was a beautiful, sunny day, not too warm, so I loaded up my camera, my sunscreen and some food and drove north for about 45 minutes to this grove.

Although I revere redwoods as much as the next guy, and hope that we protect the remaining forests forever, it has always been my view that well, if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. And don't confuse redwoods (very tall) with sequoias (very huge). In fact, one of the experiences my grown children still remember well is standing in a circle with our group, led by a Ranger, all holding hands around a vast sequoia tree on one of our Yosemite vacations, then moving away from the tree and joining hands again. The extraordinary size of the tree became real to my children only when we moved away from it and viewed the negative space on its own. They still remember this event.

But I digress. On this warm Sunday I arrived at the grove and began to walk the one mile trail. I had been concerned that I would be the only one there, but I needn't have worried. There were cars from many states - Nevada, Oregon, Washington, California, Michigan, Wisconsin, among others. But it wasn't crowded and so, I walked alone on this trail, stopping to photograph the trees and the flowers on the forest floor.

See for yourself. Seen one, seen 'em all?