"We have weak trees"

Bonus points to anyone who can name the movie.

We had a lovely stay at the Benbow Inn, complete with coffee on our balcony and breakfast on the patio. There was a free coffee station in the fireplace room, which is always a plus in my book! I ordered some local chicken apple sausage that was fantastic. Marshall played with his camera though breakfast, as you can see. I think his pictures are lovely. :)

Sunflowers in the Benbow garden

Breakfast on the patio

We were sad to leave such an idyllic spot but the giant redwoods were calling. You may remember that we canceled a night in Sequoia National Park in order to relax in Yosemite a bit longer. One day, we will see them. From what I understand, the sequoias are bigger around and the redwoods are taller. (Actually, both are types of sequoia trees, but this seems to be the way to distinguish them.) Anyway, the Avenue of the Giants is just that - a 30-mile long stretch next to the highway of giant trees and hiking trails. We stopped often to hike a little and take pictures. It was so quiet and relaxing, and we were thrilled to see such massive and ancient living things.

So even though the redwood trees are known for their height, they do have impressive girth! The tree to the left is not an exceptionally wide one, just one of many we marveled.

Pictures of the trees really don't give any sense of their height. It was amazing how tall these were. However, from the picture below, you can get a sense of just how big they are. Marshall and I had no probem standing inside the trunk of a fallen tree.

We walked down a path searching for some specific trees and grove. Can you spot the problem with the sign below? And no, the path didn't circle back on itself.

Confused Sign

This took up most of the morning and we really wanted to get to Oregon that night. Our original plan was to drive to Portland but there was no possibility without driving for 12 hours and skipping the sites. However, I was determined to get out of California! We kept getting sidetracked and couldn't seem to leave the the state. It was like a non-scary Twilight Zone episode. 

Then again, we saw some pretty cool things by taking our time, one of them being Elk Meadow. We noticed a sign advertising a huge herd of elk nearby. Our initial though was that it must be a farm; how else could a sign advertise elk as a permanent attraction? Well color us surprised, Elk Meadow was no farm. This is what we saw right next to the road:

Einstein capturing a close shot

There were about 30 elk just hanging out in this field. We noticed one buck hanging out, as well as some nominees for the Darwin Awards. There are three more people just outside the picture with their cameras. People truly don't realize that these are not friendly, tame animals. Stupidity! Note that Marshall took these with a telephoto lens and I was in the car. We were probably half a football field away and nowhere near the herd.

At one point, the buck started walking between the photographers in the field and the herd, essentially blocking them from their cars. They were lucky it wasn't mating season and that he wasn't feeling aggressive. That could have been a bad situation. As soon as he started moving and someone with a toddler went into the field for photos, we took off. I didn't want to witness Animals Gone Wild in real life. In other news, we made it to Oregon that night. :)