Among Living Giants

When I was in college, I met a charming young lady from England. She was spending a year studying abroad before beginning university at home. The two of us found we shared many similar interests and soon we became good friends. I owe her much when it comes to my interest in literature, especially for introducing me to writers such as Thomas Hardy, Evelyn Waugh and Anita Brookner. Prior to meeting her, I had not read anything that was not science fiction or fantasy since I had graduated from high school. When I graduated, I decided that I was only reading things I wanted to read, not things I was 'supposed' to read. She helped open my eyes to a much greater literary world and reminded me that not all the books I read for my English classes in high school were bead (though me and William Faulkner still do not get along in spite of additional attempts to gain some appreciation for his work). I think it played a big part in my eventually earning a degree in English Literature; that and my complete lack of ability in calculus. While I could spend quite a while writing about Melanie, that is not the focus of this blog. She does, however, play a major role in my first visit to another national park.

Prior to returning home after her year studying here, she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. She had seen both sides of the Atlantic, but had never seen the Pacific. Her roommates were from Washington State and they invited her to come visit over a weekend before she flew back to England. They asked me to drive them, but I really feared my car would not make the trip without some major malfunction. I found a solution with my roommate Leroy's help. He was flying home for a couple of weeks after the semester ended and he offered to let me use his car to take Melanie and her roommates to Washington. The only hitch to this otherwise very generous offer was that his car had a manual transmission and I had never driven a stick in my life.

We made plans for him to try to teach me how to drive his car, but for reasons I can't recall, it never happened. I learned to drive a stick by getting in his car and driving it. It actually went rather well until I had to start out on a hill for the first time and that took me almost 30 minutes to figure out. I am lucky I did not totally burn out his clutch in the process. The good thing was that after an afternoon of driving around Provo, I felt pretty comfortable in his car and I was ready for the road trip to Washington.

The trip went well, with one minor incident in Oregon where I lost control on some black ice in the middle of the night and then tried to start the car in second gear. The girls slept through it, but eventually woke up while I was trying to get going again. I was so rattled that I had to have Melanie get us started again (she had learned on a manual transmission) and none of them believed me when I told them what had happened. Melanie gave me a bit of a hard time when she realized I had the car in second gear.

We all arrived in Washington safe. I don't remember much about our stay there, just that I stayed in a house that was a renovated barn and it was very impressive. As we got ready to leave, the plan was that we would drive down to Crescent City in California so that Melanie could see the Pacific. Since it was on the way back to Utah, I suggested that we also at least drive through Redwood National Park. It seemed a shame to me to pass up the opportunity since we were going that way anyway. Since it was on the way, she thought it would be nice to see as well.

The drive down to Crescent City was nice, but the sky was overcast and rather gloomy when we arrived. We spent a little time at the beach, but the surf was fairly rough and we did not spend much time there. I'm afraid that any ideas Melanie had of 'sunny California' were pretty much dashed that day, but at least she was able see the Pacific Ocean as she had hoped. After our stop at the beach, we headed down the coast to the redwoods.

As with any of the national parks I have visited, Redwood National Park is a place that must be seen to be truly appreciated. Photos give you an idea of what is there, but they do not come close to the feeling of insignificance these trees create when you are there among them. I had seen documentaries and read books, but the feeling of awe I experienced there among them is quite difficult to describe. We stopped a couple of places, but only walked for a little while because we still had a very long drive back to Utah. The forest was misty and a little dark due to the clouds high overhead, but I will never forget the experience. 

I had never felt quite so small as I felt when looking up at the canopy of those majestic, enormous trees, and yet so safe at the same time. There was something comforting about being among such natural grandeur. I was used to seeing large trees in the mountains of Utah, but these were on a completely different scale. I found myself feeling like I had somehow been transported to a different planet altogether. To see how big around they were and how they towered over us was breathtaking. Here, in this one corner of California, stood trees that could only be described as living giants. I longed to spend hours among those wonderful trees, gazing at their immenseness, breathing in the wonderfully scented air, and feeling that here was something truly magnificent. I was so glad that we had taken the time, however brief the visit, to see one of the truly spectacular sights that this country is so fortunate to have in abundance.

I have only been back to Redwood National Park once since that first visit, and it was, unfortunately, almost equally brief; a stop on the way to renew that sense of wonder I had gained the first time. I would love to return again and spend more time among the giants, camping and hiking in that magical place. I would like to be able to spend the time I wished I'd had when I was there, but the opportunity has not come again and it remains one of those goals for some future time that may, or may not, come. At the very least I have the memories and few photos I took there to bring me back to that almost mystical time among the living giants.