Early February Hike Among the Muir Woods Redwoods

Drove over to Marin for an early February hike at Muir Woods. February turns out to be a good month for it — the canyon was cool and damp near the creek, and the trail climbed up out of it fast enough that a jacket stopped mattering.

Most of the walk is spent looking up. There was one cluster near the start where two huge trunks stood almost touching, a narrow gap of sky between them, bark shredded into long vertical strips you could fit a hand into. Further along the grove opens up and the trees stand in loose family circles, the way redwoods do where an old one fell.

Sun was getting into the upper canopy by mid-hike, but the ferns down on the forest floor stayed in shade the whole time. Some of the lower branches on the big ones are bare and gray, dead for who knows how long and still attached.