Wandering Wednesday - Big Basin Redwoods State Park

 For the first time since the CZU fire in 2020, DH and I actually went for a hike in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. We drove through it last year, but didn't stop. You have to reserve a parking spot (some of the parking lots are inaccessible), there are no facilities (they all burned down), there's no running water and only chemical toilets (the pipes and facilities burned) . It's so different there now, you can see the remains of all the campgrounds and picnic areas. All the fences and bridges are brand new looking wood.

After getting over the shock of how the infrastructure looks now, we found the trail we were looking for. 

And across the brand-new bridge.

So many mushrooms and fungus were getting to work processing all the downed trees. Here's Rosy Brown Waxy Cap (according to the iNaturalist and Seek apps)

Hairy Curtain Crust!

Fairy Fingers!

False Puffball!

Witch's Butter

The red of the redwood underneath the brown/black outside bark is such a surprising color.

I'm glad that they haven't "cleaned-up the whole forest around the trail. It's good to be able to interact with the remnants of the burned trees that aren't ever going to regrow.

But then a little further on...this made me cry. A completely burned stump, the tree trunk fallen and burned. But there's several 6" high sprouts right off of the stump.

Some of the big trees didn't make it. 

California Quail are back out in force.

Really glad we went for a hike, I feel inspired by this forest that I live in. It's carrying on, keeping going, even growing, despite the setbacks and near destruction.