Sequoia Sempervirens

This video has nothing to do with riding but it shows one of the most beautiful areas I rode through last year on my cross country trip.   I am referring to the beautiful Redwood National Park in California.  Pictures don't really show the beauty and serenity of these very old giants but this video by Jesse Rosten captures it beautifully.  I was awed as I walked through sections of the park with moss covered branches and fallen trees all around me and the still standing trees stretching upwards as far as the eye could see as if wanting to touch heaven.  The silence was deafening with only the occasional crow cutting through the silence with their loud crows. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.  Make sure you turn HD ON and then watch the video full screen.

Growing is Forever from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

I saw these giant trees for the first time before I moved to the United States in the Endor scenes on the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi (Episode VI) in 1983.  These giant trees offered the perfect backdrop for the battle of Endor when Han is elected to lead a strike team to destroy the battle station's shield generator on the forest moon of Endor.

The Sequoia sempervirens can live between 1200 and 1800 years and as I stood in the middle of the forest looking up I could only imagine the animals that have passed through the forest, the humans lives that have come and gone and the weather changes through the years witnessed by these old giants from above.  The area is truly breathtaking and affected me profoundly, giving me a new sense of how insignificant our lives are when compared to the California Redwoods and the world we live in.  The Redwood forest instilled a new sense of reverence in me for the world we live in.

My blog entry covering this area during my cross country trip "here"