Wow time flies! The end of the semester got a little hectic for me, so that is why I have not posted in a while. But I am back to talk about a trip I took during Thanksgiving. I went to San Francisco with my fiancé to visit some friends and while we were there, we took a trip to visit Muir Woods National Monument to see the giant costal redwood trees! Unfortunately, it was pretty late in the day when we visited, so many of my pictures did not turn out well or are very dark. I still have a few decent ones to show off though!

Muir Woods is a national monument that is north of San Francisco. To get there, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, which was pretty awesome. We stopped there to take some photos and then headed up to the monument. As I mentioned above, Muir Woods is home to the costal redwoods, which are massive trees growing up to 279 feet tall! And 29.2 feet wide! This forest is one of the last few strands of these special trees left in the Bay Area, so it was definitely a treat to see them! Upon arrival, we were greeted by one of the many giants in the forest right by the ranger station.

In the forest it was fairly dark, not only because of the time of day, but also because of the thick canopy shading most of the ground. The immense trees block out quite a bit of light, and this also prevents most non-shade tolerant plants from growing in the area. There were still quite a few shade-tolerant plants to be found, especially near stream beds like this one.

However, it was the giant redwoods that captivated us. Trying to capture their enormity was tough, though I think I did a pretty good job here:

And hopefully through the help of my fiancé you can see how large these trees are at the base.

Also, a fun fact about this national monument; part of Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi was filmed here. Specifically some of the scenes from the forest moon of Endor, the moon that had the Ewoks living on it!

Seeing these trees was an amazing experience, and I definitely hope to return one day to spend more time among some of the largest living organisms on our planet!