We started the Old Growth field study by climbing into a stump of an old growth redwood...
How often can you have a group of people all standing INSIDE a tree?
We climbed out of the stump, then took off down some trails. We had to have our ears on...
Crossing Wolf Creek...
We kept walking...
This field study was absolutely beautiful!
Look at the size of that tree!
Monda was our ranger...she said this was her favorite field study...
She was pointing out the ferns to us...and other vegetation...
"Bear Claw Forest"???? Yep, that's correct!
Monda was pointing out to us areas of the trees where bears had clawed the bark...
Oh my! There's where the claws dug into the tree!
It was time to leave 'Bear Claw Forest!'
We started climbing...and climbing...
Mikayla was loving the redwoods...and the sunshine!
After awhile, we sat down on our sit-upons and wrote in our journals. "WE LOVE OUR JOURNAL!"
Now this looks fake...but it's not. Sara pointed it out as we were hiking...and the we realized it was REAL! I have no idea what it is...
Hailee was smelling the ferns...
Michael looks SO excited as he's writing in his journal!
Sara and Matthew were two of our parents...
It was so gorgeous sitting among the old growth...looking at all the beauty around us...
Hannah decided to smell the fern too!
Travis said it was time to move on...(he didn't really say that...)
But first we had to do a little song/chant...
Matt, the mighty man!
Wonder what everyone is looking at? I have no idea!
We stopped a little later to do an activity...an activity having to do with the root system of redwoods...
Hannah held the net for a little bit...
Monda told us the roots of a redwood...which is an enormous tree...is actually pretty shallow.
The roots spread out...
OOPS! Sara spotted someone spying on us! There were actually 4 elk. They are monstrous animals!
Hannah and about 95% of the group were wondering if the elk would come after us...I don't think they would...I'm thinking they're equally nervous about us. Finally, everyone relaxed...sort of...
Someone help me! What was the name of this tree???? I can't remember....
Look at this bark that Monda is carrying. I had NO Idea the redwood bark was so thick! It's one of the trees adaptations!
This moss was everywhere...I thought it was beautiful!
Here we untangled our net....everyone put 2 hands on it to straighten it out...
Once it was spread out, everyone had their hands on it and one by one, Monda told us to pull. We could see what it's like...the strenght from the interconnectedness.
