September 27, 2003. Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Big Basin is home to many old-growth redwoods. These are fairly young, perhaps just a few hundred years old.
0217335		 The majestic redwoods reach for the sky and an easily reach 200 ft and sometimes over 300 ft!
0217336		 Two huge redwoods grow side-by-side.
0217338		 Two huge redwoods grow side-by-side.
0217339		 These young redwoods make up the forest after logging swept through, probably over 100 yrs ago.
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The morning sun penetrates the covers and shine upon one side of a redwood, accentuating the reddish-brown color of the bark.
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0217342		 A photoshop-modified mushroom, see the actual colors on the next slide.
0217344b		 A lone mushroom stood at the edge of the trail
0217345b		 This fallen redwood is about 5 ft in diameter and easily over 100 ft tall.
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The hikers stroll through the heavily shaded forest on soft trails padded by fallen leaves and twigs.
0217351		 The grandeur of this massive living creature is difficult to imagine, even as you see how small I am relative to her.
0217352		 What the forest might look like if the leaves ever turned yellow. In reality, this cannot happen as redwoods live only in moderate climates.
0217352b		 On the forest floor are the redwood sorrels and other splendid vegetation.
0217353		 Natalie on the trail to Berry Creek Fall
0217355
A few maple leaves have turned yellow at this creek bed.
0217356		 Shadow magic
0217359		 The 60-ft tall Berry Creek Fall, still flowing with plenty of water.
0217361		 A section of the waterfall.
0217363		 Photoshop-modified photo of a section of Berry Creek Fall.
0217364b
Group pic at the observation deck where we had our lunch. L-r: Paul, Judit, Maria, Mei, Natalie, and Lisa
0217368		 A trio of slender bodies.
0217369		 The sun rays find and penetrate through an opening between these two trees.
0217370		 As we ate our lunch, the sun moved such that rainbows emerged from the waterfall shower
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0217374

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0217385		 Judit and her bo... er, rainbow!
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Lisa and one of the two rainbows.
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0217393b
0217394		 The mouth of the waterfall is guarded by a sky-scraping redwood
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0217399
Ther's something so soothing about looking at a brilliant rainbow... dont you agree?
0217403b
0217404		 Home of a spider or spiders.
0217408b		 A bit out of focus, but you can see the care with which this spider has built its home
0217412		 More creations by spiders - these are 'nets' that catch insects that fall down along the bark.
0217413
Leaves preparing to return to the earth as new incarnates in the spring
0217417		 Trusses of a foot-bridge, one of many crossed on this trail.
0217418b		 Clusters of sorrel leaves wait their turn to be nourished by the sun.
0217419		 A millipede with probably at least 100 pairs of legs. A gentle creature, it paused while I took its pictures.
0217421		 This millipede was about 5 inches long, about the length of a pen.
0217422b
A fire might've consumed the branches of this grove of redwoods. They stand tall still.
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0217426		 This redwood has probably seen fires numerous times, as evidenced by the knurls (knobs) that have grown to cover the scars.
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0217433		 This warning for a strenuous hike (6 hrs round trip) from this point is greatly exaggerated. If lunch was not counted, then we did this rountrip in about 3.5 hrs.
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0217439		 This photo is an abstracted abstraction of nature. It is a long exposure (1 second) of the trail while I'm in motion, i.e. walking. As I had taken many Big Basin photos in the past, I was thinking about how to expand my interpretation of the park (and life), other than straightforward photos. The colors in this photo have been adjusted slightly for contrast and strength. What I like about this photo is its smooth lines with navigatable streaks. That is, some of the lines have distinct end/start points that the eyes are naturally drawn to. It speaks of motion - you could imagine it swirling around you or perhaps you swirling around it (whatever it is). Consider this a preview of more work to come :)
0217443b
0217451
These two towers are perhaps 20 ft apart at the ground but are touching at the top - do you think the two of them purposedly did this? What awesome long-term planning it must've taken to get this far, this precisely!
0217453		 Redwoods are impervious to basically anything except humans. Even this fire, which scarred almost the entire length of the tree, seemed not to have slowed its growth.
0217456		 Made it back! After the 10 mile hike, the hiker replenish with water and snacks.
0217461		    

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