We started this website to show not only the beautiful places we’ve visited, but also the beautiful connections that we made along the way. When we moved from Oregon to The Bay Area we found ourselves a little tied up in the art of survival in this area. Recently, we’ve started discovering the things that drive us again, and the result of that is more content to share with you. So today, we bring you two things: a new friendship, and the Henry Cowell State Park.

Henry Cowell Redwoods, known for its old growth redwoods, is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains about halfway between the beautiful coast off the Highway 1 and Silicon Valley. It’s hard to believe there’s a mountainous, forest-y wonderland dedicated to beauty and serenity as living in the Bay Area you become accustomed to a “hustle and bustle” lifestyle. It’s almost like you’re transcended into another world after passing the park entrance. There’s lush green everywhere, and canopy’s of tall trees hovering over the out of place road that leads you into the park.

From the moment you walk into this park it’s pretty clear that you’re in for something special. The light is amazing, the trees are red and the only word that really works to describe the flora is lush. It’s just dripping with vivid colors that don’t seem to be possible, which made editing the photos a real challenge. We had to keep stopping ourselves from desaturating them; yes those are the actual colors!

At the start of the trail we started a conversation with our new friends Martin and Tracy, who are brother and sister up from LA for a family thing. We walked the Eagle Creek trail to the Pine trail with a really great flow of conversation that led to a number of interesting similarities, like Tracy hates carrots (same with Geoff!), Martin hates celery (same with Dava!) and they are both Warriors fans. It would have been a great conversation anywhere, but among the redwoods it was out of this world.

The trail was amazing and we passed by a number of spectacular trees. Among them was the Bearclaw tree which stands an impressive 285ft (give or take a few feet due to conflicting sources) tall, with a diameter of 16ft wide. It’s no wonder this tree has been crowned the tallest tree in the park. Coastal redwoods are actually the tallest trees in the world. They are so tall, that the very tops of the trees have an entirely different ecosystem than the lower portions of the tree. If you haven’t seen a redwood tree in person you have another thing to add to your bucket list.
The trail itself wasn’t challenging. Mildly up hill in some parts, mildly down hill in others. We found it to be forest crowded, meaning you ran into people occasionally but it didn’t feel like Disney and it was very quiet and litter free. The thing that stood out was that every way you looked felt like a post card and had just some of the more stunning vistas we’re seen in a CA park west of the Seirra’s. If you’re in the Bay Area and need a quick getaway this park should be high on your list.

We look forward to share our journey’s with you as we continue to be inspired by the pockets of beauty in the Bay Area. It’s been a work-filled two years, not expecting to pick this project up again. We lost motivation, enthusiasm for our love of exploring, and ourselves. Here’s to the next chapter in our adventures!