The trouble with trilliums
Jedediah Smith Redwoods
Trillions of trilliums
This time of year the state and
national parks in and around Crescent
City are blooming with wildflowers. If
you want to see trilliums, rhodendrums,
azaleas, and many more flowers in their
colorful glory get yourself to Northern
California now. And do not forget the
ever present giant redwoods and
magnificent beaches?
Okay sometimes travel requires
sacrifice; Crescent City is a six hour
drive from Oakland. However, the trip
there will take you though some of the
most beautiful forests, scenery, and
rugged coastlines in the world; so even
the drive has its benefits.
Magnificent rhodendrums
If you like serous hiking through old
growth forest filled with flowering
trilliums then Jedediah Smith Redwoods
State Park's Boy Scout trail is for you.
This park is a small remaining patch of
what lots of Northern California must
have looked like, pre-Gold Rush days,
when Jedediah Smith came through to trap
fur in the 1820s. The redwood forests
used to be much bigger then. Today only
four percent remains of the original
forest. The Parks Service owns three
percent and logging companies own the
other one percent, which they still log
today. The destruction of all these
trees, by our greedy logging, occurred
in just 200 years. Before this shameful
endeavor they had survived for
millennia.
Everywhere rhodendrums and azaleas
It is difficult to describe the
absolute beauty of a redwood grove. It
feels like being in a cathedral or an
Egyptian temple. At the same time it is
possible to imagine a pre-historic scene
of dinosaurs wandering through the ferns
and trees. And the trilliums are such an
added bonus. They are a perennial
herbaceous flowering plant, native to
temperate regions of North America and
Asia. They are so elusive to see in
flower and they add such a depth of
color to the forest; it is definitely
something you must see before you depart
this world.
Information
A place to stay while in Crescent
City is the
Lighthouse Inn, 681 highway 101
south. They have reasonable rates,
friendly service, and clean rooms.