It started off calmly at Crescent City's marina.

Then we continued our day with the giant redwoods. I have seen them in photos. Impressive. But, to be among them and REALLY see how magnificent they are, to smell the earth around them, to appreciate the environment that they create. . . there is just no way to describe, or as it turns out, photograph them easily.

We want to go back today and see if we can better capture what is there. Not to whine too much, however, the dynamic range in the forest is so wide that even HDR does not compensate. We tried everything!! Here are some of our photos from our day.

Tom, my BIG man looked a bit small among these giants. I know the tree looks blue and it was a very blue gray color.

Uh, are we sure we want to drive under this. Sure, we are photographers and there are more photos ahead. Tom's take is that the car would survive the log sliding down! I held my breath.

There are some fall colors showing up in other trees in the forest.

The photo below is of the BIG TREE. It has its own wayside, is 1,500 years old and 60 feet in diameter. Talk about a tough photograph subject! The image just does not do this tree justice.

Tom mentioned that everyone around the big tree was whispering or speaking very softly. "Like in a cathedral." He said. That is a good description of how it felt.

Just imagine a walk down this path, with ever changing light, the smell of damp and fertile earth, quiet . . .

You might come across this.

Or this!

Or these.

It was hard to leave the redwoods. On our way to Eureka we spotted elk. This young buck is such a show off. The big bull was out of our lens' reach and since he was agitated we did not foolishly pursue him. This buck smartly stayed just outside the herd of 20 or so cows that were near the bull.