Journeys›Photograph

Mid-November Sun in Roy's Redwoods

·Marin County, California·#hiking#bay area#nature#autumn#redwoods
A dense forest showing tall trees, green undergrowth, and patches of bright yellow foliage illuminated by sunlight.

Drove up into Marin to walk Roy's Redwoods, off Nicasio Valley Road in the San Geronimo Valley. Mid-November, and the sun was already low enough by afternoon to come through the canopy sideways instead of straight down, which is the reason we went when we did.

The loop starts among big-leaf maples still holding their yellow leaves, then climbs into the redwoods proper — second growth mostly, tall and straight and packed close on the hillside. One pair of old trunks stood fused at the base with a fallen tree leaning across them partway up. Farther along the trail follows a creek that was down to bare stones this late in the dry season, just a channel of rock winding between the ferns.

A cluster of three big redwoods near the creek was the best of it, thick furrowed bark, sword ferns crowded around their feet. We came back out along the split-rail fence by the creek crossing with the sun almost gone from the grove floor.

Sunlight streams through the canopy of a dense forest, highlighting tall tree trunks and undergrowth.Tall redwood trees stand in a sunlit forest with dense green undergrowth and bright rays of light.Sunlight streams through the dense canopy of a tall forest with dark undergrowth below.Looking up at multiple towering trees with dark trunks against a bright sky and green canopy.Looking up into a dense forest of towering trees, with bright sunlight filtering through the green foliage.A dense forest of tall redwood trees under a bright sky, with a rocky stream bed and lush ground cover.Tall trees in a forest, with a dry stream bed and a wooden fence, and two small figures in the distance.Tall redwood trees in a sunlit forest with dense green undergrowth and ferns on the ground.

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